


Not In The Swing Of Things

by al_amor



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Handon, Hizzie - Freeform, M/M, everything is weird, no one asked for this yet i deliver, posie - Freeform, takes place after the finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2019-12-30 04:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18307943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/al_amor/pseuds/al_amor
Summary: Hope wakes up covered in mud on the Salvatore school lawn after throwing herself into the Malivore pit. Things are different, but things are also the same. The school is almost always in peril. Except she can't save them this time.





	1. prologue

There’s a ringing in her ears. And a bright, burning light. A heavy weight covers her face, and she jumps up right. 

 

She’s sitting on a lawn. 

 

There are kids walking around her, seemingly unaware, or just unconcerned with her being. 

 

Hope groans, her palms going to her temples and squeezing, trying to squash the pounding in her head. She stumbles when she gets up, her clothes are heavy. She reaches down and touches the cracked fabric of her jeans. 

 

Mud. 

 

She’s covered in it. 

 

She looks around the area. Then she sees the school emblem. 

 

“Oh thank God.” She mutters, stalking towards the front doors of the school. Ignoring the perturbed looks from people around her, her heavy boots stomp at a steady pace as she enters to the grand hall. The kids in the great room look at with furrowed brows and exchanging whispers with each other. Hope sighs, wiping at her face, feeling the texture of mud slide off her face. 

 

Her voice carries with a certain authority when she speaks, “I need Doctor Saltzman.” 

 

— — 

 

“I don’t understand?” Alaric sighs from behind his desk, closing one of the many files on his desk. “You’re saying, you fell into—“

 

“I threw myself.” Hope corrects. She had been ushered into Alaric's office, they offered her new clothes to change into yet she denied. She was sitting across from him, trying to just start his memory of her. Praying he would remember. 

 

“Right. You  _ threw yourself  _ into a mud pit to stop a supernatural-consuming monster from resurrecting from said mud pit?” Alaric repeated slowly. Hope nods, her eyebrows raised like she wasn’t quite sure why he wasn’t getting it. 

 

“Well, he  _ was  _ the mud pit.” Hope says, “Malivore erases any memory of whatever is thrown in. If I threw you in, no one would remember. Just like now.” 

 

“And, you’re saying your  _ Klaus Mikaelson’s _ daughter?” Alaric said, “I don’t remember Klaus ever having a daughter.” 

 

Hope sighs, rolling her eyes. “Mud pit. Erases the collective conscious. Remember? Just went over that.” 

 

Alaric raises his eyebrows at the snark coming from her, he leaves it, moving on to the next subject. “And you say that you’re a … tribrid? That— those don’t exist.” 

 

“They don’t.” Hope agreed. “Because there’s only one. Me.” 

 

Alaric sighs, shaking his head. “Look I’m sorry, Hope— Hope, right? There’s no record of you here. Or  _ anywhere.  _ You’re not in any history books we have and—“ 

 

“Because I told you to get rid of them! I thought I was going to  _ die _ !” Hope says, exasperated. 

 

Alaric holds his hands up, “Calm down, please. I just- I don’t see how we can help you.” He turns to the globe nearby and spins it. Tiny lights glow all around it. “A tribrid harnesses a lot of magic.” He explains softly, “You’re light isn’t here.” 

 

“ _ What? _ ” Hope said, panicked. She stands up from her seat and walks over to it, she spins it once. Still no light of hers. 

 

Again. No light 

 

Once more, harshly. Nothing appears. 

 

“ _ Ignalusa _ .” She says, and her heart drops when no ball of fire appears in her palm. 

 

She turns to Doctor Saltzman, who’s giving her a concerned look. She wants to smack it off his face. Oh, lightbulb! 

 

“ _ Imitantor Pupulus.”  _ She says, and then she raised her hand. 

 

Alaric does not move. 

 

“Something is wrong.” Hope says, “My magic isn’t working.” 

 

“I figured.” Alaric says skeptically. “How do you know what we do here? How did you  _ get  _ here?” 

 

Hope shrugs, “I don’t know. One minute I was—“ she stops, “It doesn’t matter. I’m here now and I  _ need your help. _ ” 

 

Days ago, Alaric would’ve cried tears of joy for those words from her. But now he just blinked blankly. He pressed the intercom on his desk and speaks while keep his eyes on her. “Kaleb, can you come here?”

 

The door opens and Hope holds up her hand to stop Kaleb in his tracks. “Where’s MG?” She asks. 

 

“How do you know MG?” 

 

“Because I go to school  _ here!  _ What are you not understanding?! We need to go to New Orleans! My aunt Freya will have things of mine and—“ 

 

The dart pierces the skin of her neck quickly. Her eyes widen and she turns around, to see Kaleb holding the stun-gun in his hand. 

 

_ “Oh you motherf-“  _

 

She’s down on the floor and unconscious before she can finish. 

 

— — 

 

_ It’s cold. And dark. And depressing.  _

 

_ She’s going crazy. This type of loneliness brings her to tears in minutes flat.  _

 

_ Please. Please. Please.  _

 

_ She sobs, she screams, she riots. It falls on deaf ears. In fact, it falls on  nothing . The vast expanse of darkness, the huge emptiness. She was all alone. Nothing was scarier than that.  _

 

_ Let me out. Let me go. Please. Please.  _

 

— — 

 

When Hope awakes, she’s shivering. She looks around. 

 

Then she scoffs. Of course Alaric shoved her in the dungeon and left her. 

 

“Yeah, that was my reaction when I was in here too.” A voice says, and Hope’s head whips around. She lets out a gasp, and smiles. The tears are welling up in her eyes. 

 

_ “Landon.”  _ She breathes out. “I’m so happy you’re okay.” 

 

The boy gives her a weird look, “Uh, thanks?” He says slowly, “Do I know you?” 

 

Hope sighs, her heart sinking. It was foolish to hope that he’d remember her. “I guess not anymore.” She says softly, looking away from him. “How are you?” She asks, her tone is defeated.

 

“I’m good…” Landon replies cautiously, “You?” 

 

“I’ve had better days.” Hope says sadly, Landon nods. “What day is it?” 

 

“August twentieth.” 

 

Hope’s eyes widen. She’s been gone six months. Completely forgotten, for six months. She had thought— wished for, prayed for— that Alaric and the crew would eventually have remembered  _ some  _ part of her. That they would’ve been trying to save her. But clearly that wasn’t case. She was a little mad, a little hurt too. However she knew what she was doing when she threw herself and Clark into the pit. She was asking to be gone. 

 

And so she was. 

 

Then her eyes widened. 

 

“Clark!” She shouted suddenly. Landon flinched in the chair he was sitting in, outside the bars of the caged in room. 

 

“Sorry?” Landon asked. 

 

“Clark! Your brother! I threw him into the pit, too! We need to find Clark!” 

 

Landon laughed, “Maybe you are crazy after all. I don’t have a brother. Or anyone, actually.” He said, his voice held a small tinge of sadness. 

 

_ You had me.  _ Hope wants to say. She nods and sighs, getting up from the small cot and pacing. She needed to figure a way out of this. 

 

Her powers were… missing so she only had a few options. 

 

She could try and convince Landon to let her out, but Landon was as loyal and faithful as a puppy (who knew one of the reasons she fell in love with him would bite her in the ass). He wouldn’t go against Alaric’s orders without good reason. She’d have to think of something. 

 

And then she’d have to kill him so he couldn’t stop her once she was out. 

 

“I have to pee.” Hope says suddenly. Landon looks uncomfortable at the comment, “You have to take me a restroom.” 

 

“I can’t really—“ 

 

“ _ Please _ ,” Hope begs, “Two minutes. That’s all I need or we can both chill in a urine-smelling basement.” She says, her face pleading. 

 

Landon sighs, and then grabs the keys to unlock the door and let her out. She smiles gratefully at him, turning on the charm. Landon smiles back awkwardly. 

 

“It’s this way.” He says, guiding Hope, she trails behind him.

“I can’t thank you enough for letting me out.” Hope hums softly, her voice carrying a light girlish tone as her fingers scale the brick wall beside her. Her finger catches suddenly and she smirks to herself, pulling the brick out as stealthily as possible. The brick was heavy enough. It should do the job just fine. 

 

“Well it’s just a restroom—“ Landon groans when she swings the brick back and hits him square in the head. The cracking sound of his skull echos in her ears. He crumples to the floor, and she grabs his body, struggling unusually so with his weight as she drags him back to the cellar. She grunts when she clumsily sets him down successfully on the cot. 

 

She takes a moment, to look over his face. He had a small scar on his cheek, she’s remembers the cut. Her thumb runs over his cheek, and then the bridge of his nose, his eyebrows, and finally his lips. 

 

“Oh, Lan…” she breathes out, “you really shouldn’t be so trusting. Anyone could kill you at this point.” She finishes softly, pressing a kiss to his forehead before she exits the cellar and locks it, she leaves the keys on his chair. As she walks away, she can hear the beginning of the fire on his body. Killing the boy you were in love with for the second time didn’t get any easier. 

 

Hope dodged crowded hallways, taking back stairwells and frequently unused passageways. She almost makes it out of the school, her goal was the school van. But then she hears a damning voice. 

 

“There she is!” Jed shouts. 

 

“Fuck.” Hope muttered, deciding to just bolt ahead for the exit. She’s almost at the door, when a solid force yanks her back, her back hits the hardwood floor harshly, knocking the breath out her, tears spring to her eyes instantly.  _ Jesus… _

 

“You don’t have to play fetch, Teen Wolf.” A snarky voice says. Hope’s eyes follow the voice. 

 

“Penelope?” 

 

The girl gives her a confused look, a ridiculously melodramatic look. “Do I know you?” 

 

Hope decides not to answer, and she struggles against the restraining force holding her to the floor, “Let me go!” 

 

“Not until we figure out what you are.” Alaric says, appearing out of thin fucking air like he had just saved the day.  _ Typical.  _ Suddenly the weight holding her disappears, and she sits up slowly, groaning at the ache of her body. She glanced around, suddenly realizing she’s surrounded. 

 

Kaleb, Penelope, Alaric and Jed. 

 

“Where are the twins?” 

 

Alaric looks disturbed at the question. Penelope scowls. 

 

“None of your business.” She says, then mutters a silencing spell. Hope’s lips feel stitched together. Penelope smiles, “That’s better, don’t you think?” Hope screams, even though it’s muffled. Penelope lets her eyes drift away from her and then turns to Jed and Kaleb. “Go sweep up Landon’s mess and get her back in there. But first, I need her blood.” 

 

_ There’s vials of it!  _ She wants to say. Penelope grabs the small pocket knife from Alaric, and slices the palm of Hope’s hand, she hisses at it. 

 

But then her hand doesn’t heal. Her heart was pounding, along with her hand. What the fuck was going on? Penelope dabs her finger into the blood pooling in her palm and then pronounces a spell, Hope remembers it as the lineage spell Emma had once given her, her blood glows blue for a second, before disappearing altogether off Penelope’s finger. Penelope turns to Alaric and nods. 

 

“Yeah, she’s human.” 

 

_ Human?!  _


	2. climbing out the back door (didn’t leave a mark)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie appears and Hope escapes. Also Landon is a hostage again. What’s new there.

“Human? I can’t be _human._ I’m literally three different supernatural beings at once! I’m not a _human_.” Hope mutters to herself.

 

She was alone again, down in the chamber. This time Alaric decided not to leave her a watch-guard. Apparently she was _harmless_ now. Pfft, harmless? She could end entire mobs of vampires, witches, and werewolves if she wanted to. She could bring forth the _apocalypse_ for crying out loud! Yet here she was, as confused and lonely as she was while in that black pit of despair.

 

She’d been here for… three days. Judging by how frequently she’d been given anything to eat. The cafeteria still had subpar food. Maybe Alaric stopped using her family’s money when he couldn’t figure out where it came from. Then her heart sank.

 

Her family.

 

They wouldn’t remember her either.

 

Suddenly she felt more alone and abandoned out here than she did inside Malivore.

 

The door whines open, and her flood is slid under the small gap of the door.

 

“Bon Appetit.” A voice says, and Hope’s eyes widen.

 

“Lizzie.” She breathes out, run forth to the bars of the chamber, her hands wrapping around the cold metal rails. “Lizzie, you need to let me out! I need to go!”

 

Lizzie jumps back from the gate, looking at her with wide eyes, “Fall back, Crazy! This isn’t a women's prison, I’m not fresh meat!”

 

Hope sighs, closing her eyes to find her composure. “ _Please.”_ She begs, Lizzie looks away from her, to the tray of food on the ground. “Lizzie you have to help me.”

 

“I don’t _know_ you.” Lizzie says, “You should eat though, you look a little pale.” She adds, her eyes flitting over Hope’s face. Lizzie hums to herself something that Hope can’t hear.

 

_Stupid human hearing._

 

Hope sighs, banging her head against the bars. Then her eyes widened. She’s human. Therefore there are human consequences to her actions. She bangs her head against the bars again. Then harder.

 

Again, her head is hurting.

 

Harder this time, the bars ring with the contact.

 

“Chill out!” Lizzie says, her eyes wide with a certain horror from seeing Hope hurt herself so indifferently.

 

Hope doesn’t respond, she hits her head against the bars harder. The burning on her forehead feels hotter.

 

“Seriously!” Lizzie shouts, placing her hand on the wall. It glows orange as she siphons power. Hope had to be fast.

 

She swung her head back before hitting her head firmly against the bars, she can feel blood trailing down her head.

 

A blue force balls in Lizzie’s hand, and then is flying forward, hitting Hope right in the stomach. Hope flies back, landing haphazardly on the cot in the corner of the cell. The cell’s door is unlocked and Lizzie rushes in. She mutters a quick confinement spell, leaving Hope unable to use her arms or move from the bed.

 

Well, she clearly didn’t think that through.

 

Lizzie situated herself on Hope’s beside, and gently places her fingers on Hope’s bruised and bleeding forehead. The touch shocks then both.

 

Lizzie flinches, snatching her hand back. “ _Ow_ ,” She hisses, “Jesus, Mikaelson, What was that for?”

 

Hope’s eyes widen. “Lizzie?”

 

“Yeah?” Lizzie replies, before unleashing a cool breeze over Hope’s forehead through her hand. The furious burning on her head suddenly disappears.

 

“Who am I?” Hope asks. Lizzie rolls her eyes.

 

“Hope Mikaelson? My former nemesis. Even though now I see it was more one sided, plus it was Josie’s fault.” Lizzie rambled, and then she pauses, “Why?”

 

“Can you unconfine me?”

 

Lizzie nods, waving her hand a certain way and suddenly Hope’s arms aren’t glued to her sides. Hope sits up, and looks at Lizzie. “You remember me?”

 

Lizzie nods, “Yes. Why are we going in circles here.”

 

“Oh thank god.” Hope breathes out, bringing Lizzie into a relieved hug. Hope pulls away from the hug and let’s her hands grip Lizzie’s shoulders. “We need to get to the van.”

 

“The van? Why?”

 

“I don’t have time to explain— I can’t even explain what’s happening right now. But _a lot_ of people are going to try and stop us and I need you to keep them from doing that, okay?”

 

“ _Me?_ ” Lizzie says, her face scrunched in confusion, “Why?”

 

“Uh, my powers are kinda missing in action right now… but as long as we can make it to the van we’ll be okay, okay?” Hope says, hurried. She hops off the bed, and grabs Lizzie’s wrist to guide her out of the cell room. “Can you cast an a cloaking spell? I need to get to your dads office.”

 

Lizzie nods, “ _Invisque.”_ She says, and Hope is successfully cloaked. “This way.” She adds, leading Hope down a long hallway and a secret stairwell. Hope wonders why she had never known about it.

 

“After Triad ambushed us, Dad gave me and Josie a map of all the secret passageways.” Lizzie informs her, “Now keep up, I can’t see you so I can’t tell when to seal this again.”

 

“Where is Josie?” Hope asks.

 

Lizzie lets out a breath, “She’s… on an errand. I was with her but, Josie said she could handle it on her own.” They make it to a doorway, and Lizzie turns to where she _thinks_ Hope is at, “I expect the full details on this mess you’re sending me on as soon as we’re in the van. I’m only doing this because I trust you.”

 

Hope nods. Then she remembers that Lizzie can’t see her. “Yeah. Of course.”

 

Lizzie nods then, and she opens the door. It leads right into Alaric’s office. Kaleb, Jed and Penelope all stop their discussion with Alaric and turn to look at Lizzie. “Sorry to interrupt you and your little Dumbledore’s Army,” Lizzie says as she walks into the room. She sits on Alaric’s desk, “What did I miss?”

 

“Uh, Nothing sweetheart.” Alaric says, “Don’t you have a class?”

 

Lizzie gives him an incredulous look, “We’re in the middle of August. School starts in September. Do you _know_ what goes on around here?”

 

Alaric scoffs at the comment, turning to the other students in his office for back up, but they all avoid his gaze. He sighs defeated. Then turns back to Penelope. “Anyways, you’ll go meet Josie? She says she can handle it but you mean the most to him.”

 

Penelope nods. “My driver is already here. Jed is taking care of the wolf. I still haven’t figured out how to get him to change back. If you just let me look in to that _book_ then—“

 

“The book is off limits, Penelope.” Alaric says tiredly. They’ve had this talk before. “I don’t know where it came from and it won’t even _open_ for me. It could be filled with dark magic or something worse.”

 

Lizzie lets them fall into a deep conversation, quietly and quickly snatching the keys to the school van off Alaric’s desk and into her back pocket. She turns quietly, making her way back to the door where she came, and then walking in. She waits a beat before closing it, and feels a gust of wind that can only be explained as Hope.

 

Lizzie seals the door shut, and then undoes the cloaking spell over Hope. She hands her the keys. “Okay, the door is sealed. They’re the only people who know you’re here. It takes two minutes to get out to the van.” Lizzie says.

 

They exit the staircase, and are back in the hall. _Finally_ by the van, Hope goes to open the driver’s side door. And then _of course_ she’s stopped.

 

“Don’t kill me again— what are you doing out here?” Landon says.

 

Hope turns to Lizzie, “Quick snap his neck with magic!”

 

“What?! I’m not doing that!” Lizzie protests. Hope rolls her eyes.

 

“Then shove him in the van!” Hope says, “We don’t have a lot of time!” She says, glancing up at the window that was in Alaric’s office. They must still be preoccupied, no one had noticed her disappearance. However she didn’t want to spend precious time trying to deal with her boyfriend… Well was he her boyfriend still? She opens the passenger door to the van and pushed Landon in before shutting it and getting into the vehicle. She starts the engine and wastes no time pressing the gas to get off school grounds.

 

“Where are we going?” Lizzie asks.

 

“Yes, this isn’t my first time being held hostage, so I know I’m not supposed to ask questions but I feel like I kinda have the right because you’ve already killed me. Where are we going?” Landon says from the back seat. Hope breathes out her annoyances, her hands gripping the wheel tighter.

 

“We need another cloaking spell, Lizzie,” Hope says, “We’re going to New Orleans.”

 

— —

 

Triad Industries’ Georgia location had been long abandoned. The old building had collected dust and neglect since Triad had mysteriously vanished from the site.

 

So no one noticed when a pond of black goo had suddenly reappeared. It had been swishing violently, crashes of waves splattering onto the concrete surrounding it. A storm was brewing within the dark water. Waves of it seemed to reach higher and higher, almost touching the lights above it. The building started to shake erratically. Dust and concrete falling all around the small tsunami taking place in the heart of it all. Until it all suddenly stopped. A hand shot out from the black goo, and gripped onto the concrete floor, until another hand emerged and managed to pull itself up.

 

Ryan Clarke wiped off the excess of slimy water off of his face and arms. He looked down at the mud pit before him and nodded.

 

“Thank you for your forgiveness father.” He spoke, “I will avenge you and I _will_ bring you Hope Mikaelson.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmk ur thoughts :)  
> Things are about to pick up don’t worry!!  
> talk to me on Twitter @endgamehizzie <3


	3. i’m driving ninety (down those country lanes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penelope joins Josie on her undisclosed ‘errand’. Hope and Lizzie rob a gas station basically. Landon does something stupid. And every one is headed to New Orleans.

* * *

In the thick of the woods in Washington state, stood an old rickety Victorian bed and breakfast. It’s owner was an old witch named named Lorna, her bed and breakfast most usually held supernatural travelers on their journeys or seeking refuge for the night or two. 

 

Josie Saltzman had been her longest staying occupant. Staying for three months, she and the old witch had become quite the pair of friends. So when Lorna was made aware that Penelope Park was making a lengthy reservation, she kindly upgraded Josie to the couples suite. 

 

The black Mercedes rolled to a slow stop on the bed and breakfast’s gravel driveway. A few seconds later, Penelope’s suede boot crunched the gravel beneath as she exited the car with poise. She doesn’t look at all like she’d spent the past hours on a plane. She smiled smugly, laying her eyes on Josie who was standing on the house’s porch, leaning against a pillar with a smitten smile on her face. 

 

“Hey, lover.” Penelope greeted, her signature smirk gracing her lips. “Did you miss me?”

— — —

 

“How long until we get there?” Landon asks from the back seat. 

 

It was the third time he had asked in the past forty five minutes. 

 

“A while.” Hope grits out, “When did you get so annoying?” 

 

Lizzie stifles her laugh, and Landon just sighs, sitting back in his seat. They’d been driving for about three and a half hours, and were barely making their way into Alabama now. Lizzie had cast a great cloaking spell, and Landon was… a good hostage? Hope really wasn’t sure was purpose he had. Sure he was an unkillable bird but… that was it. The list just did not go on.

 

Hope glances down at gas gauge and curses when she sees how the tank is almost empty. Luckily, a few miles ahead, there was a gas station. They were the only car parked into the lot. Lizzie immediately hops out of the van, and follows closely behind Hope. 

 

“Uh… I guess I’ll stay here…” Landon mutters after they had both long left the car. 

 

Hope walked around the gas station quietly, observing the cameras, the exits, her surroundings and the people. At the register was a sleepy middle aged man. His name tag said he was a man named  _ Roger _ . Even as a human, Hope didn’t doubt her abilities to over power him. However if he had a gun behind the counter, there would be a whole different set of problems. She glanced back at Lizzie, who seemed to be deep in thought about which flavor of iced coffee she wanted. 

 

“Vanilla or Mocha?” Lizzie asked, not taking her eyes off the drinks. Hope sighed. 

 

“I need you to cast the mimicking spell.” Hope informs her, “We need money from the cash register and gas. I don’t have money and you can’t use your credit cards, they’ll be able to track us.” 

 

“You still need to explain what’s going on.” Lizzie replies. Hope groans at her audacity. 

 

“Lizzie were hundreds of miles away from school— where I was being kept in a  _ dungeon—  _ with no money and almost no gas, I’ll explain once we’re in New Orleans, okay? I need you to work with me.” Hope explains, a pleading look in her eyes. 

 

Lizzie sighs, not being able to stand the puppy-eyes stare. “Fine. But we’re gonna stop at a different gas station so I can get snacks.” 

 

Hope rolls her eyes, “Yes okay, sure.” She says, “Now come on.” 

 

They both walk up to counter, and the man doesn’t bother looking up from his phone. 

 

“What do ya need?” He asks boredly. 

 

“Money and gas.” Hope says, subtly budging Lizzie.

 

_ “Imitantor pupulus.”  _ Lizzie says, and she reaches her hand, so does Roger. He gives them a wide eyed stare. Lizzie smiles at him reassuringly. She peers just over the counter, and drags her hand about where the  _ open cash drawer _ button was and pressed down into the air. Rogers hand followed her movements, pressing the button. The drawer opened, Lizzie made grabbing motions and Roger picked up all the cash neatly. Lizzie picked up her arm, and Roger’s arm shot up to hand Hope the money. With the money stuffed into the pockets of her leather jacket, she turned and smiled brightly to Lizzie.  

 

Lizzie turned to the small panel of buttons next to the cash register, and turned to see what pump the van was at. Ah, number 3. Lizzie made a motion and Roger presses down on the button. 

 

“If you try to call the police, or stop us, we won’t hesitate to come back. We won’t be so nice next time.” Hope hums happily, then turning back to Lizzie. “I’ll go pump the gas. Maybe you can make him fall asleep?” 

 

Lizzie ponders for a second then she shrugs, “Sure.” 

 

Hope smiles gratefully before walking out of the gas station. She pumps the gas quietly, until the van is full. 

 

“Sorry we took so long.” Hope says to Landon. 

 

He doesn’t respond. 

 

“Are you okay?” Hope asks, still not having turned around. Again with no response, she turns and sees an empty back seat. Her heart drops. 

 

_ “Fuck!”  _

 

— — — 

 

Landon was crouched behind the gas station, fumbling with his phone trying quickly to send a text to Alaric. However there were too many typos that it didn’t make any sense. He gave up, quickly dialing his number. 

 

_ “Landon?” _

 

“Doctor Saltzman!” Landon sighed relieved, “I’m with that girl and she has  _ Lizzie.  _ She said we’re going to—“ Landon groans at the blunt force on his head, and he crumpled to the ground, his phone flinging forwards.

 

Hope sighed. She walked forward and picked up the phone. 

 

_ “Landon? Landon?!”  _

 

“Hey,” Hope hummed into the phone. “Landon’s… he can't come to the phone right now.” 

 

“Look whoever you are—“

 

“I’m not the bad guy here!” Hope interrupts, “You wouldn’t listen so I had to take action.”  _ Just like before.  _ “Lizzie is fine. Landon is fine. I’m not trying to  _ harm  _ them.  _ I’m  _ the one who can get hurt, remember? I’m suddenly mortal?” 

 

“Well I don’t what you were before but—“ 

 

Hope sighs, “whatever. Don’t try and follow us, or calling back. I’ll be back.” Hope says, hanging up the phone and tossing it in the ground before stomping the heel of her boot on it and hearing it crunch satisfyingly. She looked at Landon, wondering if she managed to knock him out or kill him again. She crouched low, pressing her fingers to his neck to feel a pulse. Ah, there it is. 

 

Hope grabs Landon’s chin between her fingers and her out hand reaches back before it swings back and  _ smacks  _ him awake. 

 

“Ow!” Landon groans. 

 

“Let’s go.” Hope says, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him back to the car. “For someone who’s been kidnapped more times than I can count you are a  _ shitty  _ hostage.” She adds, opening the van door and letting go of him. “ _ Get. In.”  _

 

Landon huffs, getting into the van and Hope slams the door. She gets back into the driver’s seat to see Lizzie sitting with her feet on the dash, a slim Jim in her hand. 

 

“Landon’s in  _ trouble _ .” Lizzie singsongs. 

 

Hope lets out her frustrations with a heavy sight.

 

_ We just need to make it through alabama and we will be fine.  _

 

— — — 

 

Alaric looked at the phone with anger after Hope had hung up. 

 

“She has Lizzie. And Landon.” Alaric says, looking at Jed and Kaleb. “We need to find out where she’s going and we need to stop her. I don’t know what she’s up to but I don’t like it.” 

 

Jed speaks first, “Well… you said she was saying she was a Mikaelson… they live in New Orleans don’t they?” 

 

Alaric nods, pondering his decisions. But then he shook his head. 

 

She had his  _ daughter.  _ There was no time to think about what would happen if he just let this girl return whenever she pleases. 

 

“Pack your bags.” He says to Kaleb and Jed, “We’re going to pay the Mikaelson’s a visit.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this was so short (and lowkey bad lol) I just wanted to get something out now bc I won’t be able to update again for like three days. 
> 
> Lmk ur thoughts :)  
> talk to me on Twitter @endgamehizzie


	4. I’ve got the strangest feeling (this isn’t our first time around)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope might’ve finally caught a break with the Mikaelsons but Clarke is near and unceasing on his task for revenge.

It was early morning in New Orleans when Hope found herself walking to the front door of Freya’s house. The morning mist was still falling, and the early birds were started their rounds of chirping. She took a deep breath, her hand coming to knock on the door, but instead it opened before she could reach it.

 

“Keelin,” The woman said her eyes falling onto Hope, “It’s her.”

 

\-- -- --

 

Penelope watched with tired eyes as Josie got ready for the day. They’d spent the usual time reconnecting after a long three months, but it was back to business as usual afterwards. Penelope yawned, sitting up from the bed, the blanket tucked firmly under her arms.

 

“Leaving so soon? That’s a little cold, Jojo.” Penelope says, leaning against the headboard, tilting her head. Josie looked at her through the mirror where she was placing her earrings on.

 

“You’re supposed to come with. I think the cloaking spell has weakened or maybe even been removed. Either way I know here he is, and he knows where Veronica is.” Josie says.

 

Penelope grabs her shirt off the floor and slips it on before standing up from the bed, she walks over Josie and hugs her from behind, resting her chin on her shoulder. Josie melts into the embrace.

 

“You’re so beautiful,” Penelope sighs, “It’s really hot how you’re basically supernatural Jessica Jones now.”

 

“Jessica Jones? When did you become a comic nerd?” Josie laughs, her hands coming to rest on top of Penelope’s that were on her stomach. Penelope shrugs.

 

“I guess before MG went all darko mode.” Penelope says, her voice tinged with a hint of sadness. “Now we might have to kill him.”

 

Josie shakes her head, “We just need him to turn his humanity back on and then--”

 

“He killed his _dad,_ Babe.” Penelope interrupted, “He’s gonna turn it back and not be able to handle it and turn it off again. I don’t know if we can bring him back from --”

 

“We can.” Josie said, turning in Penelope’s arms, her hands cupping Penelope’s face. “We can. _You_ can. You’re his best friend, you can do it. And I’ll be there, believing in you.” She finishes, bringing Penelope in for a sweet kiss. Penelope smiled softly, resting her forehead with Josie’s.

 

“You’re right. Me and you, we got this.” Penelope replies, kissing Josie again.

 

\-- -- --

 

Hope sat on the couch, Lizzie and Landon sat beside her.

 

Across from them, Freya, Keelin, Rebekah and Marcel stood.

 

“Do you remember me?” Hope asks softly.

 

“No,” Rebekah said, shaking her head. “But we have photos. A lot of them.”

 

“With Hayley. Klaus wrote about you in his journals.” Freya adds, trailing off.

 

“They’re my parents. I-I need to explain what happened. Why you can’t remember me, I can tell you.” Hope says, she fiddles with her fingers. Lizzie reaches over, her hand coming to squeeze Hope’s knee comfortingly.

 

“There was an ancient creature, created by a vampire, a werewolf, and a witch. His name was Malivore.” Hope started, “He-He consumed supernatural creatures, wiped them off the earth and from the collective conscience of… everybody. He was… liquified and for the past couple centuries he’s been weaponized by a company called Triad. Malivore was trying to rise, and he was going to hurt the people I loved--” Hope swallows thickly, “So I had to kill him. I threw myself into Malivore, because being a tribrid it only made sense that I could only kill him. But now I’m back-- and I’m human.”

 

Beside her, Lizzie’s eyes widened.

 

“And I need to get my powers back. The Salvatore school seems intent on seeing me as a villain, so I-I wanted to see if there was any chance that you remembered me. Because I’ve lost a _lot_ of people, but being around to see them forget me hurts more than any death would and I-- I can’t lose any more family. I only have you guys as it is… if you even believe me.”

 

Freya turns to Keelin, and they seem to have a silent conversation with their gaze. Freya nods, and then turns to Rebekah and Marcel.

 

“Will you excuse a moment, Hope?” Freya asks, and the girl nods softly, patting both Landon and Lizzie to signal for them to follow her.

When they’re outside, only then does Lizzie erupt.

 

“You’re a _human?!_ ” Lizzie blurts, “You told me that your powers were _missing_ not that they were _gone forever!_ ”

 

Hope sighs, “I-I know, Lizzie. I shouldn’t have lied and stalled but I knew if you knew then you would freak out and you wouldn’t trust me--”

 

“Damn right! Hope! The only reason I-- Everything is different now.” Lizzie sighs, running a hand through her hair, pacing in front of Hope and Landon, “You could _die_ Hope.”

 

“So can you. And Landon.” Hope argues, “It’s not different I just--.”

 

“You are mortal! If you die, you don’t come back! As for me, I’m probably dying in six years anyways, Landon is unkillable!”

 

Hope furrows her brows, “Why-- Why would you be dying in six years?” Hope asks, then realization washes over her expression, “You haven’t figured out a solution for the Merge?”

 

“No.” Lizzie answers, “But it’s beside the point, Hope. You lied!”

 

The ground around them vibrates with ominous energy. Hope’s eyes widen. It was Lizzie.

 

Hope sighs heavily, “I’m sorry.” She apologizes, walking forward and stopping Lizzie’s pacing by putting her hands on her shoulders. “Hey-- look at me, Lizzie.” Hope urged, “Look at me.”

 

Lizzie finally let her eyes focus into Hope’s and sighed.

 

“I’m sorry, okay?” Hope said softly, “Can you breathe for me? In and out, nice and smooth.”

 

Lizzie’s eyes fall shut, and she nods softly at Hope’s order. The smooth calmness of her voice washing over Lizzie comfortingly. She drags in a heft of cool crisp New Orleans air, and exhales slowly. Her eyes flutter open slowly and she looks to see Hope smiling gently, although her eyes shine with concern. Lizzie smiles back softly, hoping to relay the message that she was okay silently. Hope nods, and then takes a step back to remove herself from Lizzie’s personal space bubble.

 

The ground stops shaking.

 

Landon watches with curious eyes, quietly perplexed at the… annoyance he was feeling. Something wasn’t right within him watching the interaction, he just couldn’t understand why.

 

The front door opens then, and they all turn their heads to it. Freya steps out and walks over to Hope.

 

“Can we take a stroll?” Freya asks, and Hope nods. She turns to Lizzie and Landon and gives them both a cautionary glance, not completely sure they wouldn’t do something crazy before she heads off.

 

Freya guides them silently down the road. The silence is tense for Hope. After being treated like an evil presence by the closest thing to a father-figure she had left, Hope was nervous that the effects of Malivore had also changed how people perceived her being. Would she be evil to everyone she came across now? After so long of trying to prove she was anything but?

 

“We believe you.” Freya speaks suddenly, “There’s too much evidence to not.”

 

Hope breathes out a sigh of relief, “I-I don’t know what to say. Doctor Saltzman, he--”

 

“Alaric Saltzman is a human.” Freya says,  “And Humans villainize what they don’t understand. He lives in a world of vampires, witches, and werewolves and still can’t believe something outside that scope exists.”

 

Hope nods along, opting not to reply.

 

“But you _do_ .” Frey says, stopping their walk and turning to Hope, cupping her cheeks to make Hope look into her eyes, “You are my blood, my _family_.” Freya says, reassuringly.

 

Hope feels some weight lift off her shoulders.

 

\-- --

 

The truck parked hastily in the street in front of the Mikaelson house. Alaric, armed with his crossbow and Jed and Kaleb behind him.

 

It was the dead of night, but they had finally made it.

 

The element of surprise was greatly in their favor.

 

At least that was what they had thought. As Alaric set foot onto the Mikaelson front lawn, he bounced back. A purple forcefield preventing them from taking any further steps.

 

“Boundary spell.” Alaric cursed.

 

The front door of the house opened slowly, and out stepped a brown leathered boot.

 

“Doctor Saltzman,” Hope greeted after stepping fully from the darkened threshold, “We’ve been waiting for you.” She smiled.

 

“But first you’re gonna have to drop the crossbow.” Freya said, stepping out from behind her.

 

\--

Alaric, Jed and Kaleb were spellbound to the couch. Jed looked bored, Kaleb looked pissed, along with Alaric.

 

“Where is Lizzie?!” He asked forcefully.

 

“She’s asleep, if you don’t shut the hell up you’ll wake her.” Hope hissed, “Landon too. So please _inside_ voices.”

 

Alaric sighed defeatedly.

 

“Okay, Doctor S, I didn’t cross two states for us to be chained to a chair by Mysterious Barbie,” Kaleb said, “So tell her to let us go so we can get Lizzie and get out of here.”

 

“It’s not about Lizzie.” Hope said, shutting Kaleb down, “Alaric wants to eliminate me as a threat.”

 

Freya takes a sip of her coffee before setting it down on the coffee table. She turns to Alaric, and stares him dead in the eye.

 

“I’d imagine you understand what would happen to you if you _did_ try to harm my niece. Klaus may have been the ruthless one but I will not hesitate to bring my foot down to squash your very existence, Alaric.” Freya says.

 

“You believe her?” Alaric says, “There’s nothing of her anywhere.” He defended, “Nothing in the archive, nothing in the lore. _Nothing._ ”

 

“It’s more of a gut feeling.” Freya informs him, “Like the deja vu of loving her… it’s fresh.” Freya can see the confusion on his face, “You look at her, and feel nothing? The innate sense to protect-- to care for-- is it not there?”

 

“She’s a lost child.” Alaric said, “Of course it’s there but her story-- it doesn’t add up.”

 

“If you knew the man Klaus truly was-- what he died for-- then you’d know exactly how much it does. She sacrificed herself your safety. You should be eternally grateful.” Freya lectured, “If she hadn’t we’d all probably be perishing right now, if not already dead.”

 

Alaric lets the words resonate with him. He sits quietly, his jaw clenching. “I just can’t--.”

 

Freya rolls her eyes. Her hand waving and unbinding Alaric from the couch.

 

“Take your daughter and leave.” Freya instructed, “But don’t assume Hope will not come back to the Salvatore school. My family’s contributions should be more than enough to solidify her stay there. Supernatural, or not.”

 

Alaric can’t protest. She’s right, as much as he doesn’t want her to be. He gets up from the couch, letting Hope guide him to the room where Lizzie and Landon were sleeping on separate beds. Hope nudged Lizzie softly, and the girl yawned.

 

“Is everything okay?” She asked sleepily.

 

“Your father is here. He’s taking you back to school.” Hope says, and Lizzie shot up from the bed.

 

“Are you okay? Did he-- are you hurt?” Lizzie asks, “He doesn’t remember still? Why am I the only one to remember?”

 

“I-I don’t know, I can’t answer that all right now.” Hope says quickly. “But you need to go. You and Landon.”

 

“Will you be okay?” Lizzie asked, her eyes concerned. Hope nods, grabbing Lizzie’s jacket and helping her put it on. Hope smoothes out the lapels of it.

 

“You go, it won’t be too long until you see me again.”

 

“Sounds ominous.”

 

“Yeah, it does.” Hope smiles softly. “I need to go wake Landon, but um… thank you. For coming with me… for trusting me even when I didn’t explain. I’m sorry I don’t have anything to offer in return.”

 

Lizzie shakes her head, “You’re my friend, Hope-- even if we don’t like to admit it.”

 

Hope smiles softly, before turning to wake Landon.

 

\-- --

 

The Salvatore school was quiet. It’s halls empty and abandoned. Had it not been for the cleanliness, Clarke would have thought it was abandoned. He walked down the halls, his fingers tracing the walls. Up the stairs and to the right stood before him the doors to Alaric’s office. With a flick of his hand, the doors flung open.

 

Clarke felt unstoppable with the new power Malivore had stored unto him.

 

He stalked over to the globe, spinning it slowly with his finger.

 

No bright light he was looking for. His eyes widened at the prospect.

 

“Oh Hope…” He tsked, an unnerving smile creeping onto his face, “You’ve just made it so easy...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmk ur thoughts in the comments :)  
> talk to me on Twitter @endgamehizzie  
> c u nxt time


	5. The city’s ours (until the fall)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> as Hope expected, there’s trouble at the Salvatore school.

It was barely the afternoon when Alaric parked the school van in front of the Salvatore school. The kids in the van yawned, tired after being up all night and day. Alaric opened the doors to the school and his breath caught in his throat. 

 

“Stay here.” He said to the kids, his eyes focused on the form sitting on the couch, facing away from them. Alaric stepped forward cautiously, his heavy boots making soft pitter patter against the wood floors. “Can we help you?” He calls out the figure, and hears a laugh in return. 

 

“Is that really the first thing you want to ask an intruder?” The voice answers back, before Alaric can respond, a force knocks him off his feet and pins him to the wall. He hears the stampede of feet running into the school then.  _ Oh Jesus.  _ He thinks. 

 

“Dad!” Lizzie shouts, just before she’s also knocked off her feet and unconscious, crumpled on the floor. 

 

Alaric’s eyes widen. They were in some shit now. 

 

— — 

 

Hope woke up with a jolt, her heart was beating a thousand miles a minute and her skin was damp with sweat. Her dreams didn’t make any sense, it was Alaric, and he was in trouble. That was all she could tell before she woke with the remnants of the nauseating feeling of dread. 

 

Her head turned to the alarm clock in the room. 

 

_ 2:16 _ PM 

 

After Alaric had come and taken Lizzie and Landon, Hope retreated to her room quietly. Apparently she had fallen asleep too. She hopped out of bed, and grabbed clothes from the closet. She headed for the shower. 

 

She would have to talk to Freya about heading back to the Salvatore school, because her dream felt far too familiar to not be reality.

 

— — 

 

“I’m looking for this girl.” Clarke said, sliding a photo of Hope onto the desk. Alaric breathes harshly through his nose. 

 

“I don’t know where she is.” Alaric says, “Or who she is.” 

 

“Liar.” Clarke accused. “If you want your daughters safe I wouldn’t take this chat lightly.” 

 

Alaric practically growled, “If you hurt my daughters I will  _ kill  _ you.” He seethed. Clarke chuckled, shrugging his shoulders and tapping the photo with his index finger. 

 

“The girl, Alaric, focus. I know you know who she is.” Clarke said, “At least you know now.” He corrects himself, a smug look on his face. 

 

Alaric breathes harshly through his nose. “I know she says she’s Hope Mikaelson. That’s all I know. I don’t  _ know her. _ ”

 

Clarke lets out a long chuckle, “Come on.” He clasps his hands together, propping up his elbows to rest his chin on his knuckles, “She’s not glowing on the map, so I’m assuming it’s because her powers were turned off?” 

 

“She’s a human,” Alaric corrects him, watching him with careful eyes, “Why does it matter?” 

 

“Because Hope is not just a  _ human, _ ” Clarke says, “She’s the only person who can save the world now.” 

 

— — 

 

“Are you sure you want to leave so soon? We haven’t even begun to figure out how to restore you powers.” Freya says, trying to advocate for Hope to stay with her. Hope shakes her head. 

 

There were bigger problems now. Hope’s powers, she felt, were the last of them. 

 

“They’re in trouble, I can feel it, Aunt Freya.” Hope pleads, “I need a ticket to Mystic Falls.” 

 

“Okay…” Freya nods softly, “Okay, I’ll go with you to the airport and we’ll get it squared away.” 

 

Hope smile’s gratefully, ready to turn back to her room to pack the little clothes she had, but Freya grabs her hand and stops her. 

 

“Hope,” Freya speaks softly, and Hope turns back to her with curious eyes, “You’re everything your mother and father wanted you to be. You’re the best of them, no matter what anyone tells you.” Hope feels tears spring up in her eyes at the words, and she avoids Freya’s gaze by looking away as she nods. Freya smiles softly, “I mean it kid, now go get your stuff.” Hope sucks in a big breath before nodding again, shooting her aunt a smile and turning to head back to her room. 

 

She opens the door to her room, and gasps at the sight before her. It’s Lizzie. 

 

“Lizzie?” She asks, rushing forward, her hand coming to rest on Lizzie’s arm, but her hand falls through the mist of the mirage. “Lizzie, what- what’s happening?” 

 

“Help.” Lizzie gets out, before the vision of her vanishes into light mist. Hope lets out a breath, before turning back on her heel and rushing out back to aunt freya. 

 

“We need to go now.” Hope says assertively, and Freya looks up from the book she was reading. “They need help. They need me.” 

 

Freya nods, getting up from the couch and slipping on her shoes, “How exactly are you going to help? You don’t have powers?” Freya hums curiously. 

 

Hope flexes her jaw for a moment, silently coming up with a game plan. “I know a witch. She’s pretty powerful.” 

 

\-- -- -- 

 

Penelope gets a call in the middle of their stakeout. 

 

“Pen!” Josie hisses, “I told you to turn that off!” 

 

“I’m sorry-- it’s… well I don’t know who it is.” Penelope mutters, “Give me a sec.” She adds, leaning over and kiss on Josie’s cheek. No matter how annoyed Josie was, she couldn’t hide her smile. “Who is this? This number is for emergencies only and--” 

 

“Penelope.” Hope says, “There’s a problem at the school. I need Josie.” 

 

\-- --

 

Lizzie curses, looking through the books. Nowhere was there a sign of Malivore or this Ryan Clarke who had taken her father hostage in his office. When Lizzie had woken up, she was trapped in her room, but luckily she was able to siphon the spell to unlock her door and run down to the library to find whatever book about ancient lore she could find. But nothing was popping up.

 

“Come on dammit.” She groans, slamming the book shut. Lizzie was frustrated, she had no way to get them out of this-- she wasn’t even sure if there was a way out of it. But right now her father was trapped in a room with some psycho supernatural son of Sam and she had to try. She feels her hands shaking, and her vision goes blurry with the tears of frustration she could feel rising. She groans, and feels the objects on the desk vibrate. “No, no, no.” She curses. “Not now.” 

 

The vibrating only gets worse, and she hears something clatter off the table before breaking on impact to the floor. She clenched her eyes shut, trying to control her breathing. In and out. 

 

“Nice and smooth.” A voice says softly and Lizzie’s head snaps up and suddenly the shaking stops. Hope stands, leaning against the threshold of her room with a soft smile. “I’m guessing you’re stressed. Don’t worry, I called Josie, she’s on a flight here. Right now I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

 

Lizzie breathes out a sigh of relief, “I didn’t know if my spell worked it cut out so quickly and--” 

 

“It did, I’m here, don’t worry.” Hope says, walking forward to sit on Lizzie’s bed. “Is he here? Clarke?”

 

“Yeah I guess, I don’t know who he is but, he locked Landon in the room with them and he managed to lock us all in, I siphoned the spell to call out to you but I didn’t have time to go release everyone. It’s been hours, no one has come out of the office.” Lizzie rushes to inform her. Hope nods along with all her words, her eyes flitting over Lizzie’s distressed demeanor. 

 

“He’s dangerous,” Hope says, “Especially considering he didn’t have powers before we fell into Malivore. You need to stay here, I will handle this.” 

 

Lizzie scoffs, “You don’t have any powers Hope, I’m not sending you on a suicide mission. I’m coming with you.” 

 

“No.” Hope says assertively, “I’m not going to have you get hurt because you want to be Captain Marvel.” 

 

“Hope--” 

 

“No!” Hope cuts her off, “You’re not getting hurt because of me. No one else is getting hurt because of me.” Hope lets out a breath, walking out of Lizzie’s room and down the hall, she pulls the medieval axe off the wall and stalks over to Alaric’s office, before she can kick the door open, they fly open on their own. Hope steps back, and sees Landon tied to a chair, Alaric sitting at his desk, and Ryan Clarke sitting casually on his desk, smiling at Hope. 

 

“Hope,” He says cooly, “Glad you could make it.” 

 

“Let them go.” Hope says, “They have nothing to do with this.” 

 

“They have a lot to do with this-- especially little bro over there.” Clarke laughs, pointing at Landon who just struggles against his restraints while glaring at Clarke. Hope fights the urge to help him in order to deal with Clarke. “Alaric is just here because you care about him, but maybe I underestimated your feelings for the Saltzman girl. Perhaps you would’ve come quicker.” 

 

“No Saltzman has  _ anything  _ to do with this. This is between Malivore and I.” Hope answers. 

 

“What are you gonna do with that axe?” Clarke laughs to himself, his eye flitting to it, he has a gleam of amusement in his eyes. 

 

“Oh this old thing?” Hope sighs, shrugging, “It was just to distract you.” 

 

“What?” Clarke asks, but before he can register it, Hope pulls out a gun, three loud shots ring out loudly and then Clarke is dead. 

 

Alaric and Landon look at her with wide eyes. 

 

“I’m so glad you only hit me with a brick.” Landon breathes out. 

 

“Where did you get a gun?!” Alaric says, his eyes widened with fear. 

 

“It’s America I could walk down the street and buy  _ four _ .” Hope defends herself, “I’m human, remember? I had to figure out some human way to protect myself, and no offense, a crossbow isn’t exactly lightweight luggage.” She explains, walking over and untying Landon from the chair. She looks over to Alaric and huffs a breath, “So, do you believe me now?” 

 

Alaric rolls his eyes, “Well, I--” 

 

“Dad!” Josie breathes out relieved, “What happened?!” 

 

Hope turns to her and gives her an exasperated look, “Well, what the hell took you so long?” She sighs, Josie gives her a confused look. Hope rolls her eyes to herself,  _ right they all forgot me.  _ “We need to get Clarke out of here, if I’m right he still has the power to resurrect.” 

 

“I’m sorry-- who are you?” Josie asks, her eyes flitting over Hope. 

 

The auburn haired girl sighs, “It’s a long story. Go get Lizzie, we’re gonna have to keep him asleep before we dump him somewhere.” Josie just nods at the authoritative girl before turning to go fetch Lizzie. 

 

“You killed my brother.” Landon said, looking at Clarke’s lifeless body. 

 

Hope furrows his brows, “He was going to hurt you-- and others.” She says, tilting her head, “You can’t seriously be mad that I--” 

 

“I don’t know what you have against me and my relatives to be killing us off all the time, but I want you to stay the hell away from me.” Landon says, getting out of the chair and walking off. 

 

“Landon!” Hope calls out, throwing her hands up in defeat when he doesn’t come back. “He’s more moody than I remember.” She mutters, turning back to Alaric. He’s still looking at her blankly, Hope’s slightly worried he might have disassociated from his lack of response. She snaps her finger in front of his face repeatedly, “Earth to Doctor Saltzman.” She says, Alaric blinks a few times before finally focusing on her. 

 

“We need to get rid of him.” Alaric mutters, “What about the cellar?” 

 

“Lizzie and Josie can place a blocking spell to subdue his powers, but we don’t know the extent of them. I mean-- he didn’t have any of these before I don’t know how--” 

 

“I do.” Dorian speaks up from the doorway, “We have a lot to cover.” 

 

Hope turns to him and then back to Alaric. “This was not the welcome-back committee I wanted.” She mutters annoyedly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmk ur thoughts   
> Talk to me on Twitter @endgamehizzie  
> c u nxt time


	6. “I think it has a crush on Lizzie”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in true Salvatore School fashion, they get attacked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i got tired of looking for song lyrics so I’m gonna start just using quotes for titles now like the actual legacies lol

Hope’s brain was _hurting_. She was sitting in the library with Dorian, after he had just explained the entire predicament they were in.

 

“Can you repeat it again? Slowly.” Hope groaned.

 

“Here,” Dorian sighed, pointing to the small paragraph in the ancient book. It’s pages were brittle and browned by the wear and tear of surviving centuries. “One paragraph mentions Malivore. It calls him the Eater Of The Dark. He’s a golem whose sole purpose was to consume every other supernatural being besides witches werewolves and vampires. He grew weak after he completed his mission, so humans were able to overpower him.”

 

“All this I know.” Hope says, “How does this help me _now_?”

 

“Everything in nature has a balance. Even when it comes to magic.” Dorian says. Hope nods along. She just wanted to sleep. Being a human was exhausting.

 

“So what does that mean?”

 

Dorian locks eyes with her briefly, “It means that you’re alive— so is Malivore.”

 

Hope’s heart drops. “So— everything I did. It was for nothing? I-I’m a human, all for nothing?”

 

Dorian nods softly, “What it means is that you’ve crippled him. You’re powers are gone, because so are his. It’s probably why he’s thrown you and Clarke up—“ Hope makes a disgusted face at the phrasing, “He’s losing his ability to keep what he’s contained within him.”

 

Realization dawns upon Hope, “So we’re in more danger than ever before.”

 

Dorian nods again, “I’m afraid so. If Clarke was sent to come after you— I’m sure whatever follows will too.”

 

“And I can’t help.” She mutters brokenly. “We’re all gonna die.”

 

— — —

 

It was late at night, past curfew, the only light on in the hall was Penelope’s.

 

“I missed this room.” She sighed, laying down comfortably on the bed, opening her arms wide, giving Josie puppy dog eyes. “Stay with me?”

 

Josie smiles amused, making her way over and gracefully falling into Penelope’s embrace, her nose nuzzling into the crook of Penelope’s neck. Penelope hummed contently, her eyes closing as she rested her head against Josie’s. They almost doze off in their embrace, Penelope’s thumb stroking up and down on Josie’s hip, and Josie’s breath rhythmically blowing against the skin of Penelope’s chest. Penelope feels the fuzziness of sleep at the tip of her fingers when their comes a loud crash from within her room.

 

They both jolt up, and look at the source of the noise. It was a photo frame of them, from their first date. Josie pouts sadly, and almost goes to pick it up— Penelope stops her by gripping her hips.

 

“Don’t.” Penelope whispers. Another crash is heard, and their heads dart into a different direction. A flower pot lays broken on the floor, the soil spilling onto the hardwood floor.

 

“Look.” Josie says, her eyes focused on the dirt. Through the mound of dirt, little footprints appear, although they can’t see _what_ was causing them. “Pen—“

 

“We need to get out of here.” Penelope says, “Run.”

 

They go to stand up and dart for the door, but it feels like their feet are stuck together. The momentum of their movements was too much, and they fall forward onto the floor with two heavy thuds. Penelope groans against the hardwood.

 

“Josie are you o—“ Penelope gets cut off when she watches helplessly as Josie seizes, her eyes rolling back dangerously so and her body spasming, a thick black goo trickles out the side of her mouth. Her eyes widen. “Josie!”

 

She struggles against the invisible restraints on her feet, suddenly her arms feel held down too.

 

“Help! Somebody hel—“ Penelope feels a heavy weight collide with the back of her head and her world goes black.

 

— — —

 

The school bell rings after lunch. Hope was stuck to Lizzie’s side, being human and all, she couldn’t do much to participate in magical-centered classes so she had taken to being Lizzie’s partner for most of the activities.

 

“You look a little sick, Lizzie.” Hope said, looking over at her concerned.

 

Lizzie nodded, her hand clutching at her abdomen. “Yeah I— I don’t what it is.” She groans, right before she keels over at the cramps. She cries out, her fingernails scraping for purchase on the wall. Hope is immediately at her side.

 

“What’s wrong?” Hope asked, her eyes wide.

 

“I-I don’t know.” Lizzie pants through the pain. “I need— the infirmary.” She grits out. Hope nods quickly, grabbing Lizzie’s arm and slinking it across her shoulders, helping the girl to the infirmary. They don’t make it far, before Lizzie halts in her steps and gulps nervously. “I’m gonna be sick.” She mutters before running forward and retching into a trashcan.

 

Hope scrunches up her face in disgust at the sounds of Lizzie practically puking her guts up. The force of Lizzie’s vomiting, brings her to her knees, the trashcan following with her. Hope rushes forward again, holding Lizzie’s hair away as she gags and hurls. It was the most putrid smell Hope ever had the displeasure of knowing. By the time Lizzie had stopped, her entire body was shaking. A thick, black substance was dribbling from the corners of her mouth. She moved from the trash can, and fell limp against Hope’s body.

 

Hope looked over Lizzie, with the utmost fear in her eyes. She brushed away the strands of hair that were stuck to Lizzie’s now sweaty forehead and looked down at her. Lizzie’s eyes were fighting to stay open.

 

Hope nodded to herself. “Okay— it’s okay, I’m gonna get you to the infirmary okay? It’s gonna be a bit of a bumpy ride since I’m not that strong anymore but we’ll make it.” She informs Lizzie. She hefts Lizzie up bridal style, with shaky arms.

 

She runs down the hallway as smoothly as she can with the added weight, turning around a corner and stumbling into the infirmary.

 

Her eyes widen at the scene. The infirmary was packed, with sick kids everywhere. All were vomiting and passing out after.

 

A nurse walked over and looked distressed. “Set her down here.” She said, pointing to the only spare bed, Hope set Lizzie down as gently as she could. Lizzie looked at her with scared eyes.

 

“I’ll be back.” Hope promised, “I need to get your dad.”

 

“No!” Lizzie protested weakly, her hand darting to grab onto Hope’s before she could walk away. “Please. Stay. At least until Josie makes her way down here. The twin pain will catch up to her soon.” She begged, making the saddest eyes at Hope. Hope sighed heavily, nodding, taking a seat next to the infirmary bed.

 

— — —

 

Penelope groaned groggily, her eyes opening slowly. Her mouth was so dry, she yawned, stretching her jaw. She looks around the room and her eyes find Josie situated against the wall in front of her.

 

“Josie.” She breathes out, relieved. She goes to crawl over to the girl, and she makes it halfway across the room, before something grabs ahold of her ankle and yanks her back harshly, her back thwacking against the drywall. She winces in pain. “Fuck. Josie! Josie wake up!” She shouts, and (thankfully) Josie’s eyes begin to flutter open.

 

“Babe?” Josie murmurs groggily, “What’s going on?”

 

“I don’t know.” Penelope says, her voice tinged with worry. “Is there some type of twin thing you can do to reach out to Lizzie?”

 

Josie makes a gesture that meant more or less, but then her eyes widen. “Oh god…” She mutters, not giving Penelope a second to prepare before she throws up. Penelope struggles against the invisible restraints, and she feels then loosen, rushing her way over to Josie, holding her hair back, and her hand coming to rub up and down Josie’s back.

 

If the smell alone of the black tar coming out of her girlfriend wasn’t enough to make Penelope throw up, her resonating nausea worked itself until Penelope was throwing up beside her. Penelope held herself up, her palms pressed against the hardwood of the floor as more tar oozed from her mouth. Josie groaned, wiping the corners of her mouth and falling weakly against the wall. Shakily, she stood on her feet and did her best to pull Penelope up with her.

 

“We have to find that girl— Hope.” Josie says, and Penelope nods her head. They make a haste exit to the door and once their on the other side of it, Penelope places a containment spell on the door.

 

They slowly walk down the dorm hall, until they’ve made it to the main floor. Kids are strewn everywhere, looking sickly. A few were even throwing up the same black substance on their treks to the infirmary. Josie would have to remind herself to look for Lizzie. When they arrive, their greeted by chaos. Kids are throwing up everywhere— some even projectiling. The infirmary walls were covered in black goo, streaks of it running down the walls. The smell was horrifying.

 

“Josie?” Hope called, and Penelope and Josie both turned to her to see Lizzie passed out on an infirmary bed.

 

“Oh my God, Lizzie.” Josie breathed, suddenly her illness was irrelevant, Lizzie was hurt. She knelt down beside the bed and ran her hands over Lizzie’s forehead. “Lizzie— Jesus, what happened?” Josie asked turning to Hope.

 

The girl shrugs. “I don’t know. She was complaining of cramps earlier and then after lunch she just starting throwing up, I brought her here. I tried to leave to find Doctor Saltzman but she asked me to stay.” Hope informed. Josie sighed, nodding, her hand grasping onto Lizzie’s tightly.

 

“You and Penny go find Dad. I’ll stay here.” Josie says.

 

“Actually—“ Penelope holds up a finger, but she cuts herself off with gagging, and she turns away, clutching her stomach and vomiting more into the floor. The sounds of Penelope retching, causes another pandemonium of pukers. Josie sighed defeatedly.

 

“Me and Hope will go.” Josie corrects. “Sit here, Babe.” Josie gently guides Penelope into the chair and kisses her forehead gently, siphoning magic out of her at the same time. “Sorry,” She murmurs before she’s off with Hope.

 

“Why aren’t you throwing up?” Josie asks, and Hope shrugs.

 

“Why aren’t you?” Hope shoots back as they turn a corner to head to Alaric’s office.

 

“I was for a while but it stopped suddenly.” Josie answered, opening the door to Alaric’s office. The sight that greets them isn’t what they expected in the least. Alaric was passed out on his desk, and Dorian seemed to be restrained to a chair.

 

Hope lets out a small breath, looking around the room for whatever perpetrators were responsible for this.

 

“They’re invisible.” Josie says, also looking around the room. “And tiny. Penelope and I spotted footprints in our room before we passed out.”

 

“You guys moved in together?” Hope asks conversationally, pulling out her gun from a faux book lock box she had placed in Alaric’s office. She cocked the gun.

 

Josie can’t help the blush that comes to her face, “Yeah.” She answered and Hope nods.

 

“You’ll have to tell me about it later. Right now, we need powder, something to track footprints.” Hope says, her eyes looking over Alaric’s office until she spots a ridiculously huge hourglass. “There.” She says, “The hourglass.”

 

Josie walks forward, and picks it up only slam it down harshly onto the ground. Sand spreads thinly over the floor in Alaric’s office.

 

It’s tense for a beat.

 

“There!” Josie says, pointing to a pair of footprints, Hope doesn’t hesitate to shoot. A small cry rings out in the room, and whatever was keeping the creature invisible waivers.

 

On the floor laid a small… person?

 

“Is that a fucking elf?” Hope asked, her confusion clear.

 

Dorian sighed, feeling the restraints on him suddenly vanish. He stood up, rubbing her wrists and flexing his jaw that was unable to move for such a long period. He bends to pick up the small being, placing it on the tabletop of Alaric’s desk.

 

Josie ran over to her father, guiding him to sit back into his chair properly as he began to wake up from his stupor.

 

“It’s not an elf.” Dorian said. “It’s a Gremlin.”

 

“A _what_?” Josie said with furrowed brows, “Aren’t those supposed to be like fuzzy big hamsters or something?”

 

“These are a specific kind,” Dorian says, “ An Alux Gremlin— it’s a Mayan sprite. And they’re killing everyone right now.”

 

“What do you mean?” Hope asks.

“Everyone’s throwing up, and having record high fevers.” Dorian reports his notes, “They’re boiling everyone alive, from the inside out.”

By the desk, Josie’s eyes widen when she looks at the floor.

 

“Uh— guys.” She says worriedly, Hope and Dorian turn to her, “Look.” She squeaks.

 

In front of them, where the only footprints where the tiny ones of the gremlin Hope had just killed, now stood _hundreds_ of them.

 

 _“Hope Mikaelson.”_ The tiny invisible voices spoke in unison.

 

Hope gulped. They were fucked.

 

— — —

 

Lizzie got up shakily from the infirmary bed. Nothing the nurses did were helping with the sickness everyone was feeling. This was stronger than any magic they’d ever dealt with. Lizzie turns to Penelope who was slumped in the chair.

 

“Hey.” Lizzie said weakly, tapping Penelope’s cheek in quick succession. “We need to find Hope and the others.”

 

Penelope grunts, trying to turn away from Lizzie. The blonde girl scowls, slapping Penelope’s face harder than before.

 

“Ow!” Penelope hisses, glaring at Lizzie, holding her cheek in pain.

 

“Listen, Blair Bitch, I may have been okay with you and Josie getting back together— because I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Now if you wanna fuck that up by sitting here moping instead of trying to stop whatever fucking madness is going on— then by all means sit on your ass and let Josie do this all by herself. Without you.”  

 

Penelope huffs out a breath, before sitting up and guiding Lizzie out of the infirmary.

 

“Josie and the girl left to Doctor Saltzman’s office.” Penelope tells Lizzie.

 

They make it halfway to the office, just turning down the hall when shots ring out. Penelope and Lizzie spare a glance to each other before the both dart for the doors, throwing them open.

 

It’s total chaos within the office. Hope and Alaric were standing on his desk, Alaric holding out a thick book to dodge the attack of pencils, and Hope shooting at whatever movement she could spot. Josie was hiding behind a chair, throwing out fireballs after whatever was launching thumbtacks at her. Dorian hid himself in the corner of the room, flicking thickly folded paper at whatever was attacking them.

 

 _Humans…_ Lizzie tsked internally. She pressed her index and pointed finger on the back of Penelope’s palm and siphoned the little magic she needed, waved her hand around before clenching her fist.

 

 _“rigescunt indutae.”_ She spoke, and suddenly everyone in the room froze. _“revelabis.”_ She added, and the large expanse of the floor that no one had stepped on, was revealed to be occupied by little… warriors? “What the hell are those things?”

 

“Gremlins.” Hope spoke from her place on the desk, arms to held out with her gun, her body frozen in position.

 

“Can I kill them?” Lizzie asks.

 

“No!” Dorian shouts, “They multiply. Hope killed one and now we’re dealing with a hundred in this room alone.”

 

Lizzie rolls her eyes, snapping her fingers four times, and Dorian, Hope, Josie and Alaric are no longer frozen in place. They flee the room. Penelope closes the doors and mutters a containment spell. Josie immediately runs over to her, cupping her face and murmuring words of concern that makes Lizzie want to vomit even more.

 

Hope smiles softly, amused at Lizzie’s dramatics.

 

“Thanks for coming to find us.” Hope says, Lizzie shrugs.

 

“I wanted to go full Captain Marvel.” Lizzie replies, Hope just chuckles. They stay with their eyes locked for a second too long, when Josie clears her throat awkwardly.

 

“Okay,” Josie singsongs, looking between the two girls suspiciously. “We need to figure out why everyone is so sick besides Hope and I.”

 

“Oh I know.” Dorian says, “it’s because they’re looking _for_ Hope.”

 

“Then what about me?”

 

“You have my blood in your system.” Hope points out. Everyone looks at her with wide eyes.

 

 _“What?”_ Alaric hisses, “When did you make Josie drink your blood?!”

 

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Penelope grits up, stepping up menacingly. She shoved Hope, who doesn’t budge due to Penelope’s illness making her weak.

 

“I was saving her life! Do you not remember being _shot_ with a Malivore bullet?” Hope scoffs, looking at Josie and Doctor Saltzman. Realization dawns upon Alaric’s face. “How do you think you got better?”

 

“That was your blood.” He mutters.

 

Hope’s getting really tired going in circles with these people.

 

“Yes,” Hope sighs, “Now can we move on? My blood has apparently made the gremlin side effects ineffective for me and Josie. How do we get rid of them?”

 

“Well, it says that in the lore, the Alux’s usually asked people for things along their travels. If they weren’t helped, they would go on rampages spreading illness and causing mayhem.” Dorian says, “One way to trap them is get them in a house, and sealing the doors and windows. We have to lure them to one.”

 

Penelope speaks up then, “The old mill house in the woods. Could that work? We can cast a containment spell.”

 

“But we’ll end up sealing Hope in with them won’t we?” Lizzie asks, Hope makes a face that more than not reads as, _thanks for caring about that part_.

 

“No.” Alaric says, “There’s a spell— we need something around Hope’s height to perform an illusionary spell.”

 

Lizzie’s and Josie’s eyes widen at once, “Mildred!” The exclaim. Everyone around them gives them a confused look.

 

“What?”

 

“Mildred!” Lizzie repeated before explaining, “I have a mannequin, you know so I can see what I would look like in an outfit— I named it Mildred— the height is adjustable I’m sure I could adjust it to the ground.”

 

“Hey!” Hope pouts, “I’m not that short!”

 

Lizzie rolls her eyes, “Come along, Elf.” She says, “We will meet you there.”

 

— —

 

When they finally heft the mannequin to the old mill house. Lizzie and Hope are out of breath. Josie and Penelope laugh at the fact.

 

“Dad left me the instructions for the spell. Hope, we’re gonna put you under a cloaking spell, and you’ll head back to the room. Lizzie, Penelope and I will carry out the spell. I just need…” Josie trailed off, walking over to Hope until they were almost nose to nose, Josie smiles softly, and then Hope felt pain surge from her scalp. “That.”

 

“Ow!” Hope winced, rubbing her neck.

 

Penelope rolls her eyes, “It was like three strands of hair—“

 

“Babe be nice.” Josie reprimands, placing the strands of here on a pile of sticks. “ _Incendia._ ” The sticks turn themselves into a small bonfire. “She’s a human, of course it was going to hurt.”

 

Penelope huffs, being cut out from making a snarky comment hurt her soul.

 

As the fire burned, Josie placed the cloaking spell, sending Hope off again.

 

The fire burns and burns, until soon there’s nothing left but ash.

 

“Grab a handful, and blow it onto Mildred.” Josie instructs. Penelope and Lizzie reach for their handfuls, repeatedly blowing ash onto the white, fabric mannequin until it was a dusty gray color. Josie nods, looking back down at the instructions. _“Duplicare.”_ Josie says, after blowing a small force of wind into the standing mannequin.

 

When the ash falls from it, before them stands an exact copy of Hope. The duplicate smiles. Lizzie gives it a weird look, _why is it looking at like that? Creepy._

 

Penelope seems to take notice too, a laugh bubbling in the back of her throat, her head tilts back. “Babe, I think it has a crush on Lizzie.” She cackles. Josie tried to hide her smile, and when she makes eye contact with Lizzie’s glare only then does it fade completely.

 

“Pen…” Josie reproached, knocking her shoulder with Penelope’s. Penelope’s laughter dies down slowly, Penelope wiping at the tears in her eyes.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She sighs. “What’s next?”

 

“It’s on Dad and Dorian now.” Josie says.

 

— —

 

Hope is making her way back to campus, when she runs into Landon. He spares her a glance, and then sighs.

 

“Want some?” He asks, holding out the bottle of champagne.

 

Hope ponders for a minute and then decided _yeah_ after all the shit she’s been through the last four days? She’s earned a drink, legal or not. She situated herself next to him, and he hands her the bottle. Hope gulps down at least a third of it.

 

“And I thought I was having a shitty day.” Landon laughs bitterly. Hope furrows her brows.

 

“What’s up with you?”

 

Landon shakes his head, “My brother, he um… he’s been MIA. He just disappeared one night.”

 

“You saw me kill him.” Hope says, “Kinda why you’re pissed at me, remember?”

 

Landon chuckles, nodding with her, “Yeah, yeah— that guy. But no I’m talking about my _brother brother_ .” Hope’s eyes widen as the realization hits her. _Oh God, how could I forget?_ “His name is—“

 

“Rafael.” Hope cuts him off softly, Landon nods sadly. “I’m sorry.” She whispers. Landon shrugs.

 

“It just sucks because I don’t— I don’t really have anyone to talk to. Rafael was like _my guy,_ you know? He just _got_ me.” Landon sighs, taking another swig of the champagne.

 

“I could—“ Hope cuts herself off, wondering if this was even something she should be proposing. “I could be that— that guy- person, for you. If you wanted of course I’m not— not trying to force you.” She stammers awkwardly. Closing her eyes in mortification when she finally pushed the words out.

 

Landon’s eyes run over her face, and he smiles softly. He goes to say something, but they’re cut off by a voice.

 

 _“Incoming!”_ Alaric shouts, and Hope’s eyes flit over to where a thousand little footprints are stomping the grass into the dirt. Hope’s eyes widen. She was supposed to be in her room!

 

“Fuck, okay don’t freak out.” Hope says quickly, fisting his shirt in her palm and pulling him forward into a deep kiss. Hope’s hair falls forward, creating a curtain, shielding them from the stampede of gremlins that were searching for her. Landon squeaks as she pulls him into the kiss, but he follows her lead regardless. His large hand comes and slides up her shoulder to rest on her neck, his thumb resting on her jaw. Their lips move with a familiar ease Landon was perplexed by.

 

Once the stampede of footsteps dissipate farther away, Hope pulls away from Landon, who lets out a soft gasp. She tries to avoid Landon’s gaze, but can’t help herself when she peeks to gauge his reaction. Landon has a small grin on his face.

 

“Well, uh, Raf never did _that._ ” He teases.

 

Hope groans, her face falling into her hands in embarrassment. “Oh my God shut up.”

 

— —

 

They had contained the gremlins, thankfully.

 

“What now?” Penelope asks Dorian.

 

“I suppose they’ll just die?” Dorian says, “the book never covered that.”

 

“Uh guys.” Lizzie says, her eyes focused on the house. “They just threw Mildred out a window.” The others turn to where Lizzie was looking.

 

“Should they be able to do that?” Josie asked, her voice tinged with worry, “It was a really strong containment spell—“

 

“Wait— They’re _leaving_.” Penelope points out.

 

The gremlins lift up the Hope duplicate and and let their invisibility turn off. A thousand little gremlins lift the duplicate, and suddenly the stampede of feet resume and they’re heading off over a hill, gone into the afternoon light.

 

“Uh…” Alaric starts, “Should we be worried?”

 

“If anything they _are_ just going back to Malivore— right?” Penelope answers.

 

Lizzie’s eyes widen suddenly, “Guys— has anyone checked on Clarke?” When she sees the way everyone shakes their heads in confusion, she elaborates. “I don’t think the gremlins were here just for _only_ Hope.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmk ur thoughts :)  
> talk to me on Twitter @endgamehizzie  
> c u nxt time!


	7. “This isn’t fucking free willy”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> these are not the type of mermaids h2o told y’all about

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help what the fuck should kalebs last name be lmfao

Lizzie and Dorian ran down the hallway until they made it into the cellar room. 

 

The cellar door was wide open and Ryan Clarke was nowhere in sight. 

— 

 

“Get  _ off  _ of me.” Clarke hissed at the gremlins. “Now get out.” He ordered, a flick of his hand and the gremlins were all flung back into Malivore. He circled Hope. “You’re not putting up a fight.” He noted, eyes narrowing in suspicion, before she could reply, he took the knife out of his pocket and slit her throat. 

 

Only cotton fell out. 

 

Clarke shouted his anger, repeatedly stabbing the duplicate, until cotton was littering the floor. Suddenly his anger turned into pain when a loud ringing was felt in his head. He groaned, clutching his head and falling to his knees in front of the Malivore pit. 

 

“I-I’m sorry father. I will do better. I promise, please— I just need another chance I-I won’t let you down.” He grits out, and suddenly the ringing cuts out and in relief he falls limp on the floor breathing heavily. He turns to the body double and flicks his hand, Mildred goes flying against a wall, falling limp as she hit the floor. 

 

— — — 

 

Lizzie has always prided herself on being one of the more prominent socialites of Salvatore school, being the headmasters daughter came with a certain privilege in status and Lizzie used it to her full advantage. She was always invited to parties, always throwing parties, and  _ always  _ sneaking off to one. When Hope had resurfaced, Lizzie had temporarily cut herself off of the party culture around Salvatore, but after the week she’d had— she figured she deserved one good rager. 

 

There was supposed to be a party by the lake tonight. Alaric and Dorian were going out of town for some research and recruitment with Roman, so it meant that Lizzie and Josie were in charge. Lizzie knew right away that Josie would shrug off the responsibility to her. 

 

Her twin had gone soft ever since Penelope Park’s return, any free chance she had— she and Penelope were holed up in their room doing God knows what (and Lizzie  _ did not _ want to know what). 

 

Lizzie skipped mindlessly on her way to Hope’s room, knocking softly only to hear a “come in” in return. She let herself in, and smiled at the girl who was standing in front of her easel, paint brush flying in different directions, paint scattered in her clothes and in her hair. She looked so chaotic and harmless at the same time. 

 

Hope set down her brush and turned to the blonde who was now sitting on her bed. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Hope asked, turning to Lizzie. 

 

Lizzie shrugged in answer before speaking, “I wanted to invite you out, there’s a party by the lake tonight. I figured we could both use a stress reliever— what better way than boys, booze, and beautiful scenery?” 

 

Hope laughs softly, but scrunches up her nose when she shakes her head, “I’ll pass.” Hope says regrettably. “This is the first moment I’ve had to just  _ breathe _ . I kinda wanna savor it for as long as possible.” 

 

Lizzie pouts exaggeratedly, “Pooie. Fine, suit yourself. Have fun, Bob Ross.” Lizzie sighs, her tone light as she made her back out of the room, she stops at the door’s threshold and turns back to Hope, “I’m here if you need anything.” 

 

“Of course Liz.” Hope smiled back, “I know.” 

 

— — —

 

It was almost sunset, and the three kids setting up for the party were pregaming, sitting on the dock. They were already drunk, and beginning to smoke the weed they had. 

 

A senior boy squinted his eyes as he looked out at the lake, “Do you guys see that?” He asked, smoke bumbling out of his mouth. The boys around him nodded, when another boy spoke up. 

 

“Bro I think someone’s in the water.” He says, his eyes widening. 

 

“Shit!” The senior boy cursed, “Go get them! We can’t have anyone  _ die  _ before our party it’s a fucking  _ buzzkill _ .” 

 

The boys sigh collectively. 

 

“Well?” The senior asks, “Who’s getting them?” 

 

Neither of the boys with him volunteered, so he stumbles to his feet sighing, “Pussies.” He grumbles, “It’s not a fucking lake monster, probably just some dumb kid who can’t swim.” 

 

He strips off his shirt, and clumsily kicks off his shoes. He turns back to his friends, a stupid smirk on his face, “Who knows maybe it’s the lochness monster.” He jokes, before diving into the water. He swims his way to the figure, the fog rolling over the lake was making it hard to see. “Hey,” He calls, “Are you okay?” He asks. 

 

There isn’t an answer and he curses, opting to swim closer. In front of him, a girl faced away from him. She was floating fine, black hair slick and laying straight on her head and down her back, her tanned shoulders glistened with the water under the moonlight. 

 

“Uh-- hey? You really shouldn’t be out here this late…” He says, swimming closer and slowing reaching to touch the girls shoulder it feels scaly. “Are you okay?” 

 

“Yes.” The nameless girl speaks out, she sounds like an angel, “But you will not be.” 

 

The boy furrows his brows, “Huh--” His eyes widen when she turns around, sharp teeth lined in her mouth and the devilishly haunting smile she sports. He doesn’t get another word out before she’s digging her nails into him and pulling him into the depths of the lake. 

 

“Do you think he’s good? He was kinda drunk…” One of the boys asks. 

 

Before the other can respond, thick vines of algae shoot out of the lake, wrap around their ankles and fling them into the water. 

 

\-- -- -- 

 

Lizzie was realizing two things: 

 

One: a drunk Kaleb and Jed meant stupid and illogical strength tests to prove who was superior. It also evolved into a drinking game that was clearly more effective than ever. 

 

“I-I bet that you can’t backflip over  _ ten _ people.” Kaleb slurs, jabbing his finger into Jed’s chest, the alpha rolls his eyes. 

 

“Bro, I could  _ triple  _ backflip over fifteen people.” Jed argues back, and then turned around to the crowd of teens mingling around them, “I need fifteen volunteers!” He shouts. 

 

Two: This party  _ sucked _ . She’s starting to think that maybe Hope had it right to stay in and relax. She’s sitting on an empty ice chest, swirling the beer in her cup and looking out into the expanse of the party. The seniors hosting the damn thing had suddenly gone MIA before the party started, so now even younger classmen were sneaking in and taking over the party. She sighs, pouring her beer out and walking her way back to the school. 

 

She walks near the lake, under the trees and past the bushes, when she sees a hand hanging out from a bush. With furrowed brows, she takes a tentative step forward, her fingers gently poking at the arm, most of the body was still covered by the brush. 

 

What she doesn’t expect is for a severed arm to fall from the bush and roll in front of her feet. Lizzie’s eyes widen and she shrieks, “What the fuck?!” She shouts to no one in particular. She kicks the arm away with her sneaker before running the rest of the way back to the school. She’s panting by the time her feet lead her to Penelope and Josie’s room, and she knocks frantically. 

 

It takes a moment, but Penelope opens the door, a white fluffy robe wrapped around her body and an annoyed expression on her face. “Is there something you fucking need?” She grumbles, Lizzie rolls her eyes-- she doesn’t have time to spit shit with Penelope. 

 

“I think someone’s dead.” Lizzie informs her, “At least that’s what the  _ severed arm  _ I found is telling me.” 

 

Penelope groans, muttering something about this  _ not  _ being an ideal time for homicide. She shuts the door in Lizzie’s face without another word and two minutes later, Penelope and Josie are walking out with her. At the staircase, Josie turns and Lizzie stops her with a hand on her wrist. 

 

“Where are you going?” 

 

“To get Hope?” Josie says with furrowed brows, “Shouldn’t we--” 

 

“Don’t.” Lizzie pleads, “She-- She needs a break. Besides, she can’t do anything for us-- she’s a  _ human _ Josie.” Lizzie convinces her twin, who sighs and nods, turning to Penelope who was breaking into Alaric’s office. When the doors opened, she lead the twins into the dark room. 

 

_ “ _ _ Illuminabant.”  _ Penelope says, snapping her fingers and the lights in the office turn on. “Here, Jojo.” Penelope says, handing Josie a wooden bat, “It’s enchanted, has the same power as a kick from six bulls.” 

 

“Is that what we came in here for?” Lizzie deadpans, “To start Josie’s softball career?” 

 

“I’m already on the softball team…” Josie mumbles, but it goes unheard by Lizzie. 

 

“She’s already on the softball team.” Penelope rolls her eyes, “She’s the captain.” 

 

“Okay-- that’s not the point.” Lizzie grumbles, sending Josie a quick apologetic look, Josie just smiles softly and nods at her to let her know she’s forgiven. “What are we in here for?” 

 

“This.” Penelope says, holding up Alaric’s bullhorn. “There’s a party, we need to break it up before anyone else gets hurt.” 

 

Lizzie nods and the three of them leave the office. The trek to the party is relatively silent, and Lizzie guides them to where she left the arm. 

 

Josie’s weak stomach makes an appearance and she gags repeatedly. Lizzie rolls her eyes. 

 

_ Drama queen. _

 

“Those look like  _ bites _ .” Penelope observes, “Like a--” 

 

“A shark bite.” A voice softly speaks up, and the three girls turn to see Hope standing by. 

 

“What are you doing here?” Lizzie asks, “I thought you wanted a quiet night?” 

 

Hope shrugs, “A quiet night was  _ really  _ boring, so I uh, came to find you and instead I found that severed arm.” She explains, Lizzie nods along— ignoring the fluttery feeling in chest at the notion that Hope had sought her out. Lizzie flexes her jaw, telling herself to get it together, and then turns back to Penelope. 

 

“Don’t you have a party break up?” 

 

Penelope nods, “C’mon, baby.” Penelope says to Josie, holding out her hand for Josie to take— which she does happily. 

 

Off in the distance Hope and Lizzie can hear the beginning of Penelope’s speech. 

 

_ “Okay, now we’re not mad, just disappointed, guys. Do you know how late it is? This close to the first day of school— your parents would be  _ **_ashamed_ ** _.”  _

 

“So a shark bite.” 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

“We don’t have sharks.” Lizzie says, and Hope giggles a little. 

 

“Yeah, Liz, I get it.” Hope laughs, “It could be some type of fish monster. Maybe a megacroc or something stupid like that.” Hope tries to brainstorm but she shakes her heard. That doesn’t make any sense. 

 

“What about a mermaid?” 

 

Hope and Lizzie turn to see Jed and Kaleb, seemingly sobered up. 

 

“A  _ mermaid _ ?” Lizzie asks, “What are you going on about?” 

 

“That arm you found? We found the body. Some senior named Jake. He thought someone was drowning and when he went to help he was attacked.” Kaleb explains. 

 

Josie looks sick again, “He’s  _ alive? _ ” 

 

Jed shakes his head, “Oh no, but his other friends are. They were attacked too but they’re not sure by what. Mermaid kinda takes the cake doesn’t it?” 

 

“A siren maybe?” Penelope asked, walking back, a hoard of pissed off teens trailed behind her, “They can’t remember much, maybe they were drawn to something.” 

 

“A siren is actually a half-bird woman— the stories got mixed up some time ago.” Hope points out. 

 

Lizzie snickers, “Perfect, we finally found Landon a girlfriend.” 

 

— — — 

 

They decide to wait until sunrise before doing anything. Sitting out on the lake, Penelope had fallen asleep on Josie’s lap as the younger girl braided small strands of her hair. Penelope’s short hair was fun to mess with, maybe the next time it got longer she’d burn it off again. (Probably not, but it was a thought bouncing around in her head.) 

 

Hope sat with feet dangling off the dock. Lizzie seated next her, sitting crisscross and scrolling through her phone. 

 

“So have we figured out why I remember you and no one else does?” Lizzie asks randomly, setting down her phone and looking at Hope who was staring off into the distance. Her words seem to jolt her out of her thoughts. 

 

“Oh… uh, no.” Hope says, “Dorian said he’s been doing some research but… nothing yet.” 

 

Lizzie nods, and doesn’t push the subject further. The implications of what it all could mean, is something Lizzie didn’t want to dwell on right now. They gang sits in silent for a few more minutes. It feels like hours roll by when finally, there’s movement in the water, a loud splash and tail coming from the water. 

 

“Did y’all see that?” Kaleb asks. 

 

“Yes idiot, it’s why we all stood up and ran to the dock.” Penelope grumbles. 

 

“Why is she in such a mood?” Lizzie asks, turning to Josie, her twin only shrugs in a ‘I’ll tell you later’ fashion. 

 

The movement from the middle of lake sifts through the water, rippling into waves. Penelope’s eyes widen, “Get back!” She shouts and they all scatter, a thick vine of algae shoots out and nearly misses Lizzie, scraping her enough to draw blood. 

 

“Shit.” She hisses. Hope turns to her, worried eyes. “I’m fine— don’t freak out.” 

 

“What if that turns you into whatever the hell is in there?” Hope asks. Lizzie sighs. 

 

“You can send me to sea world then.”

 

“Seaworld sucks,” Hope says, deadpan, “We’ll just keep you in the lake.” Lizzie snorts a laugh. 

 

“Yeah, fuck seaworld.” Lizzie agrees. The girls look around to see the other squatting behind trees and bushes. Hope sighs. 

 

“C’mon.” Hope says, and she makes her way back to the dock’s edge, already playing a dangerous game. “I need a barrier spell.” She informs Lizzie, the girl nods, reaching over and siphoning the magic from Kaleb who was nearby. 

 

Lizzie casts the spell, a clear forcefield appears before them, and the rest of the gang gather with them. Another vine of algae whips out of the lake, also this time it sizzles when it makes contact with the barrier and a small shriek is heard. 

 

“Show yourself.” Hope speaks. She might be a powerless little mortal right now, but the grave authority in her voice could compel anyone to listen to her. 

 

Slowly, a hand reaches out, and lays on the dock, soon after a head begins to appear. 

 

It’s a woman. 

 

A  _ very _ beautiful woman. Maybe even akin to an angel. 

 

She smiles at the kids, pearly white sharp jagged teeth and a playful light in her eyes, “Which one of you is Hope Mikaelson?” 

 

Hope curses. 

 

“What do you want?” Lizzie speaks up. 

 

The woman in the water rolls her eyes, “I need Hope Mikaelson.” 

 

“You’re not getting her.” Penelope says, stepping in front of the two girls, “Now tell me who sent you before I drain this lake and let you rot.” 

 

The gills at the base of the woman’s neck seem to take in more water at Penelope’s threat. 

 

“Look— I want to go home.” The mermaid says, “for the past three centuries I’ve been in…  _ nothing _ .” She pleads, and looks actually believable. 

 

“You killed a kid and left his arm out!” Jed says. The mermaid rolls her eyes. 

 

“I needed sustenance. He was too sour anyways, sharks are an ideal meal.” The mermaid explains dismissively. 

 

“Oh shit, she said sharks.” Kaleb mutters, eyes wide. Everyone turns to him with an annoyed look. He holds his hands up in defense, “The chick eats  _ sharks _ !” 

 

Penelope rolls her eyes and turns back to the mermaid. 

 

“What if we make a deal?” Penelope proposes, her green eyes already lost in calculating a perfect plan. 

 

“A deal?” The mermaid asks, and then she grins, her rows of sharp teeth make an appearance, Josie gags again. “I’d like a deal.” 

 

“We’re not giving you Hope.” Penelope says, “But we will get you out of here. Say… Mediterranean sea? Nice and saltywatery just for you.” Penelope convinces, a sky smile in her face and she winks at the mermaid. “We’ll set you free.” 

 

— — 

 

“Are you crazy?!” Lizzie hisses, “We’re not letting that shark killer free!” 

 

They had pulled Penelope away from negotiations and were now sitting for away from the lake. Penelope rolled her eyes at their theatrics. 

 

“I don’t see anybody else with a better plan,  _ Lizzie _ .” Penelope hissed. 

 

“This isn’t fucking Free Willy! She’s trying to  _ kill  _ Hope.” Lizzie argues, a scowl on her face, “Who’s to say she won’t manage to do that while you try to pull out a way to transport her out of your ass?!” 

 

“I think you need to pull  _ your _ head out of your ass and realize that you don’t have a better idea! Either she stays here and tries killing more kids or we give her the all you can eat sushi buffet in Greece!” Penelope fought back, the two girls were toe to toe, even with the height difference they were both on equal footing, the fight only seemed to be starting. 

 

“Pen—“ Josie tried softly to pull her girlfriend back, but Penelope ripped her shoulder from under Josie’s hand. 

 

“No.” Penelope said, “My way or the highway, Saltzman.” She said to Lizzie.

 

“Lizzie—“ Hope also tried but Lizzie scoffed. 

 

“You can’t be serious Hope? Letting her go is going to come back and bite us in the ass! You  _ have  _ to know it.” Lizzie said, exasperated. 

 

“Guys.” Jed spoke up, “Where— Where’d she go?” 

 

“What?” Lizzie and Penelope ask at the same time, but before Jed can repeat himself, the mermaid surges out of the water, shrieking so mind numbingly that they all fall to their knees at the sound. 

 

“ _ rigescunt indutae! _ ” Penelope grits out, her hands shooting out and the merwoman freezes in mid air, Penelope’s arms shake at the force she’s having to use. Penelope was a fast thinker, it was one of her better qualities. With the shrieking down and cut off, everyone gathers their bearings and Lizzie siphons more from Kaleb before taking some of the weight off of Penelope. 

 

“Josie— the bat!” Lizzie says, “Whack this glorified sea trout to hell!” 

 

Josie runs forward, the bat held in position and swings full force. The bat sounds loudly, and they all hear bones crack as the material had collided with the mermaids stomach. With a gigantic splash the mermaid flies back into the water of the lake. 

 

Josie, Lizzie and Penelope share a look. 

 

“ _ quae ambitum.” _ Penelope says, and a wavering dome flickers over the lake. “She’s contained— for now, we need to figure out what the hell were gonna do with her.” 

 

The rest of them are silent. Penelope scoffs, “I have to do all the work here? Jesus, no wonder Alaric left me in charge.” 

 

“What?” Lizzie asks, then turns to Josie, “I thought we were?” 

 

“Uh, no. Dad gave Pen the keys to the office and the emergency phone last night.” 

 

“Unbelievable! How is Blair Bitch more responsible than me and you?!”

 

“Remember the part where you were at an unapproved party and someone got their fucking  _ arm  _ chewed off?” Penelope asks rhetorically, Lizzie rolls her eyes. 

 

“Freeze the lake.” Hope speaks up, tired of their petty fighting. “You perma-freeze the lake and she’s contained better than just a containment spell. When we figure out how to transport her, we cut her out and ship her out of here.” 

 

“Thank you!” Penelope sighs relieved, “Someone actually had something  _ contribute _ instead of criticize.” An obvious jab at Lizzie. “C’mon, it’s gonna take more than me to pull it off.” She says to the twins. 

 

“You might wanna hurry,” Kaleb says, eyeing the water, “I think the good sis is trying to reappear.” 

 

Penelope stands between Josie and Lizzie, begrudgingly grabs onto Lizzie’s hand and then Josie’s as they siphon power from her. 

 

“ _ alta Frigidus!”  _

 

Just as the spell works, fingers of the mermaid breakthrough the water, but get frozen solid. The water crackles as it’s movements are halted and were frozen in their state. 

 

Changing the risk, Penelope steps into the ice of the lake— amidst Josie’s protests, and she grabs the bat, swinging it back over her head until it collides with the ice. The clink is loud, and Penelope flies back into the deck from the force of it with a groan. The ice didn’t have a scratch on it. She sighs relieved. 

 

“Okay,” Penelope groans, sitting up, feeling calm at the feeling of Josie’s careful hands running over her back and healing the hurt from her muscles. “Me and Josie are leaving. Don’t burn the house down.” 

 

“What?” Lizzie asks, “Where are you going?” 

 

Penelope sighs at the relief from the pain in her back and hops up to her feet. Wrapping her arm around Josie’s waist and pulling the taller girl into a swift kiss as thanks, before turning back to Lizzie, her head resting on Josie’s shoulder. “It’s our anniversary— well last night was— we’re  _ not  _ spending it here staring at the Ice Age we just recreated.” 

 

But then her eyes widen, and she turns to Josie, “Wait— baby, do you still want to learn how to ice skate?” 

 

— — — 

 

Hope is back in her room, her hand mindlessly flowing on the easel with her paint brush, lost in her own little nirvana. 

 

She dips her brush tip back into the light blue she had and her hand pauses just before she lets it down on the easel. She drops the brush. 

 

“Not again…” She grumbles, finally focusing on what she was painting. She groans, grabbing a rag and angrily smothering the painting and distorting it’s image. 

 

It was Lizzie all over again. Just like on the last three easels. 

 

—

 

_ “Hey Hope,” Dorian had greeted gently as he stepped into her room. “I have some news, it’s about you and Lizzie.”  _

  
  
  
  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what do y’all think Dorian has to say 👀  
> lmk ur thoughts :)  
> talk to me on twitter @endgamehizzie  
> C u nxt time!!


	8. “You are good.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the necromancer makes a comeback. Love that for him. For Hope not so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took 462829 years and isn’t that great

Clarke sat on the ledge of the catwalk just above the Malivore pit, and sighed distastefully. Obviously the mermaid hadn’t worked (and it was a far reach that it would’ve, he had told his father). So now he was left to kick his feet in the air as he brainstormed what he would have to do next. 

 

His bag of surprises was running low. Then—  _ oh—  _ his eyes widen and he smiles.  _ I know exactly what to do.  _

 

— — — 

 

Hope yawned as she had awoken. It had been a solid three days of silence, her days had consisted of going to classes she could participate in and avoiding Lizzie as much as possible. Except at lunch, or free period, or her room after class, or dinner, or her room after dinner. Basically Hope couldn’t escape the Saltzman twin. 

 

And it wasn’t Lizzies fault, but more so Hope’s. She was sitting on a big secret, at least it felt big. And she didn’t want Lizzie knowing to affect they way they had things now. 

 

Dorian has dropped quite a bombshell on her a few days ago, and it had seriously distorted the way she viewed her relationship with Lizzie. She didn’t want to put the blonde girl through the same thing as her. 

 

Hope sat up in her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, when her bedroom door burst open to an energized Lizzie dressed in gym shorts and a blue and white half sleeved shirt. 

 

“Up and at ‘em, Mikaelson.” Lizzie greeted. 

 

“What?” Hope yawns, “I just— it’s Saturday, I wanted to sleep in.” 

 

“Nope! No sleeping today. Today— we play a part in the Salvatore Boarding School Field Day!” 

 

“Is that new?” Hope asked, furrowing her brows. Lizzie shakes her head. 

 

“No, we usually do it the weekend before school starts, for summer to go out with a bang. You were usually in the Big Easy.” 

 

“Right.” Hope nods. “What does it consist of?” 

 

“Oh we have a dunking booth, obstacle courses, carnival games, and of course, water gun battles and potato sack races, three foot races too.” Lizzie explains with a grand tone, waving her hands dramatically. Hope can’t help but smile at the childish enthusiasm Lizzie has about her. 

 

“Okay.” Hope nods, “Count me in.” 

 

Lizzie cheers happily, clapping her hands together. “Great! Here’s your shirt, you get ready! I’ll probably be downstairs with Pedro.” 

 

Hope nods quietly and watches as Lizzie exits the room once more. She looked at the shirt Lizzie handed her and sighs. She wasn’t sure she was mentally prepared for this. 

 

— — 

 

“Babe, you have frosting  _ all  _ over you.” Josie laughed at Penelope. The shorter girl rolled her eyes. 

 

“Maybe because you were face painting with it?” Penelope answered, “Seems like the only logical answer.” 

 

Josie just laughed as they finished the last of the cupcakes and set them neatly in the display where she and Penelope were handling the cupcake walk. 

 

Little witches stood all around, excitedly eyeing the cupcakes. 

 

“Today is gonna be a good day,” Penelope sighs happily, pulling Josie into a soft kiss, “I can feel it.” 

 

“Me too.” Josie agreed, pulling Penelope into another kiss. 

 

— — 

 

Clarke grimaced, as his eyes landed on the flamboyant animated corpse before him. The necromancer. He was a lively man, however the decomposited state of him never failed to gross anyone out. 

 

“And to what do I owe the displeasure?” The necromancer asked. 

 

“I need a favor.” Clarke said vaguely. The necromancer raised his eyebrow. 

 

“How can I be of service?” 

 

— — 

 

“Hope c’mon! The race is about to start.” Lizzie said, grabbing Hope’s hand to lead her over to the field. Hope tensed at the action, the implications. Subtlety, she snaked her hand out of Lizzie’s and cracked her knuckles. Lizzie didn’t pay any mind to it, happily still walking towards the action. 

 

“It’s the three legged race, Josie and Penelope are running but— they suck.” Lizzie laughs, and Dorian on the other side of the field pulls out the small relay race gun and lets out a shot, before the teams start running. 

 

It’s a stampede of clumsy kids trying to make the way to the finish line, but the obstacles and readjusting to each other's speed and balance, knocks the weakest of the competitors down first. Josie and Penelope make it about halfway, before Josie stutters over a small hurdle and send her and Penelope tumbling into the grass. The losing doesn’t matter, not really, when Penelope laughs into the crook of her neck and places a consoling kiss to her cheek, smearing the black streaks Josie had painted onto her cheeks.  

 

Penelope sits up and undoes the spell that had kept their two feet glued together and helps Josie up, leading her girlfriend over to Lizzie and Hope and off the field where the remaining competitors had to make their way back to the start to officially win. 

 

Before anyone can get a word out, Alaric’s voice rings out from the loudspeakers placed around the perimeter of the school. 

 

_ “Students, we have a code black, please take the pre-discussed precautions.”  _

 

Hope furrows her brows, but before she can ask, students suddenly scramble to head back into the school. However Josie, Lizzie and Penelope don’t move. Jed and Kaleb run to catch up to them as Dorian also walks over. 

 

“What’s a code black?” 

 

“A vampire with their humanity turned off.” Lizzie explains, “We implemented a bunch of safety drills after Triad. We need to get to Dad’s office ASAP.” 

 

— —

 

Hope entered the office first and looked at the worried Alaric. 

 

“Hope.” He greeted gravely. The other flooded into the office behind her. Alaric sighed once he heard the door close and lock, placing his hands on the desk her picks up his phone that had been lighting up with texts from the sheriff. “We have a problem we need to contain.” 

 

“A vampire with their humanity turned off,” Penelope says, “Yeah we know, we should get going--” 

 

“No.” Alaric says, holding up his hands, “This is… a little different.” 

 

“What do you mean, Doctor Saltzman?” Jed asks, crossing his arms. 

 

“This vampire… is an Original.” Alaric says. 

 

Hope’s eyes widen, “You mean--” 

 

“It’s Klaus Mikaelson.” Alaric finally tells them, “It’s your dad, Hope.” 

 

\-- -- -- 

 

If Hope had the power to turn into a wolf and sprint her way through the woods to get to the center of Mystic Falls, she would’ve left everyone in the dust. But seeing as she was now human, she had to suffer through the ten minute car ride to the town hall, where her father was now causing mayhem. When Alaric had stopped the car by the curb, Hope didn’t wait for it to be parked, before she opened the door and ran in the direction of the screams she was hearing. 

 

Her father was facing away from her, hunched over and draining some poor bystander dry. Klaus growled angrily, throwing the woman away from him and onto the street when he was finished. Hope spared a glance to the woman. She wasn’t dead, but she had a very slim chance of survival if no one got her out of here soon. 

 

Before she could make a move, she heard her father’s voice ring out, “Where is Hope?” He shouted, “Why doesn’t anybody know?!” 

 

“Dad,” She answered, but her voice was too soft, she cleared her throat. “I’m right here.” She said, standing tall, her chin held high. Now wasn’t the time to get emotional about seeing her father, because this wasn’t really her father. This was a cruel Malivore trick. And Hope would not let herself fall susceptible to this gimmick. 

 

Klaus turned around, blood smeared around his mouth and running down his chin. He grinned at her maliciously, “Hello, my daughter.” He opens his arms wide and laughs. “Come give daddy a hug-- haven’t you missed me?” 

 

Hope’s jaw clenches, and she can hear the footsteps of everyone else rallying behind her, “Dad--”  _ This isn’t him.  _ “Klaus. Klaus you need to end this.” She tried to reason as her father kept taking his large, confident steps forward. 

 

“You and Daddy are going to go on a little road trip.” Klaus says, ignoring her words, “We can make up for lost time.” 

 

Hope clenched her jaw, fighting her emotions. 

 

“Fine.” She agrees. “Let’s have some father-daughter bonding time.” 

 

“Hope, don’t—“

 

“Be  _ quiet _ .” Klaus hisses at Alaric. “She’s  _ my  _ daughter.” 

 

Hope backs up slowly, her feet guiding her until she bumps right into the witch who was standing behind her. She turns and sees Lizzie looking at her with a confused expression. She had a plan. Hope  _ always  _ had a plan. 

 

Emma’s words from many months ago came to the forefront of her mind,  _ Humans always usually have a little bit of magic in their bloodline from a far-flung relative.  _

 

It was a long shot, considering the lineage spell Penelope used hadn’t detected any in her. But it didn’t work for Landon either, meaning— “Lizzie, I need you to siphon from me.” Hope says. 

 

“What?” Lizzie asked. “But you’re a human you don’t have—“ 

 

“Just  _ try _ .” Hope insisted, her eyes on her father who was making his way closer. “And when it works, I need you to transport me and dad to somewhere secure and not too far from here. We need him contained and you have to cast the spell.” She explains quickly. Lizzie nods, and grabs Hope’s hand, closing her eyes and feeling heat radiate from her hand, she peeks an eye open and nearly gasps at her and Hope’s bright glowing hands.  _ It’s working.  _

 

The hot rush of power, makes Lizzie almost dizzy. But she composed herself when she hears Hope grunt as she jumps forward and grip Klaus by the material of his shirt. 

 

She thinks of her destination and quickly spits out the incantation,  _ “onerariis hominum!” _

 

With a quick flash of light, Hope and Klaus vanish. 

 

Alaric looks at her alarmed, Lizzie’s head is still a little fuzzy from the power rush. 

 

“Where did they go Lizzie?” He asks, “Where?!” 

 

“Call Josie!” Lizzie tells her father. “She’s at the school— she needs to contain the gym!” 

 

Alaric nods, and immediately calls Josie. 

 

“Josie, sweetie— we need you to lock down the gym.  _ Now! _ ”

 

— — 

 

Hope and Klaus landed with a thud on the gym floor. Hope groaned to herself, and then sits up. 

 

_ “quae ambitum.” _

 

Hope’s eyes shift to the door of the gym and she sees Josie standing just outside of it, with a worried look on her face. 

 

“I threw in some uh, protection.” Josie informs Hope, and then nods over to the gun and… stake. 

 

“I don’t—“ Hope cut herself off. “Thanks.” She says numbly. Josie and Lizzie had to kill their real mom, who’s to say she won’t have to kill her father? Hope turns and glances at her father, he was seemingly still knocked out from the impact. Weird. 

 

But then he gasped and his body jolted, and he was awake again, the color black had overtaken his eyes, even the whites of it. He turned to Hope and snarled, “Be Daddy’s little darling and listen-- won’t you?” 

 

Hope scrambles to her feet, grabbing the gun, leaving the stake where it was. She unlocks the safety and cocks it once, with trembling hands she aims at Klaus, who laughs at her. 

 

“Really? That’s no way to treat the man who made you,” Klaus laughs, “I could take that gun and rip out your throat before you could pull the trigger.” He adds darkly. 

 

“Rip out my throat? Not really something Daddy Dearest would say.” Hope replies, her hands still and she lays her finger on the trigger. “You’re not my dad. You’re a pawn of Malivore’s game.” Her voice grew steadier. 

 

Klaus raises his brow, and in the blink of an eye he had dashed out of her line of sight and Hope groaned, feeling herself being yanked and thrown against a wall. The gun was knocked out of her hand, and her father's hand gripped her neck harshly, she struggled for a breath, tears welling in her eyes. Klaus grinned evilly. 

 

“See, little one?” He asks lowly, “I’m too powerful. I am  _ no one’s  _ pawn.” 

 

His nails prick at her neck, Hope feels the burn of breaking her skin. 

 

“Dad— Dad, please.” Hope begs. It was her only option. “Please don’t.” She cries, her voice cracking. Her lungs were burning, everything was becoming a little fuzzy. 

 

Hope thrashes, her hands coming and trying to push him away but it was all in vain. She was truly powerless. 

 

Klaus just chuckled, watching her uselessly struggle. But then he gasped, his eyes widening and his grip in her neck slackened. Hope took in a jagged breath of air and looked at him. He stumbled backwards. Then she saw it. 

 

The stake. Sticking from through his back and the tip just barely reappearing in his chest. 

 

But how?

 

“Hope, are you okay?” Her eyes shot up and she looked at a worried Lizzie, but she didn’t have time for that. 

 

Hope ran forward, stopped Klaus from collapsing harshly on the floor, letting him down easily. When Klaus’s eyes focused on her, he gasped. 

 

“Hope.” He said softly, his eyes were normal again, a washed full of emotion. Hope took in a breath. This… this was her father. 

 

“D-Dad. Hi.” She said softly, “Everything’s gonna be okay, okay?” She said, her voice shaking, tears in her eyes. 

 

“I tried. I tried to-to turn it back on but I couldn’t.” Klaus explained quickly, his voice sounding tired. 

 

“I know, I know dad.” Hope agreed, her hands coming to grip his. “I’m sorry.” She added, tears rolling down her cheek. 

 

Klaus shook his head weakly and he took in a strangled breath. “You’re good, Hope.” He said softly, smiling sadly, “You come from… me. But you’re still good. No matter what anyone says, you are  _ good. _ ” 

 

“Dad I—“ Hope starts but then, he’s gone. She lets out a gasp, her hands pressing into the air where he was and meeting the cold hard gym floor. 

 

She doesn’t get her chance to grieve. Because clapping comes from the corner of the gym. 

 

“That was a little moment, wasn’t it?” The necromancer laughs. “Really, touching, I might’ve shed a tear.” He cackles. Hope clenched her jaw and stands up, grabbing the gun that wasn’t far away and doesn’t hesitate to shoot at him. One two three four times, her anger doesn’t dissipate. The necromancer laughs again at her feeble attempts. 

 

“Bring him back!” Hope shouts, “Bring him back to me  _ now! _ ” 

 

“‘fraid I can’t do that sweetheart.” The necromancer says. Hope clenched her jaw tightly. 

 

She shifts her aim, and doesn’t flinch when she sends two bullets into his head. She goes to shoot again, but she’s out of bullets. She throws the gun, and takes in a few ragged breaths, trying to fight her emotions. A soft hand comes and rests on her shoulder. She stares at his collapsed body for a second before turning and looking at Lizzie. 

 

“Hope—“ 

 

“Don’t.” Is all she says, before walking towards the gym door and watching silently as Josie undid the containment spell. She walked off without another word. 

 

— — — 

 

Lizzie finds her sitting on the porch of the old mill house. She’s sitting facing away from her, and staring at the setting sun. 

 

“It hurts.” Hope says softly, after she hears the footsteps. She only figures it’s Lizzie. “I had him back… for two seconds but— I thought maybe I could turn his humanity back on and I’d have my dad back.” Hope explains, laughing bitterly. “But, as it turns out, I don’t have that kind of luck.” 

 

Lizzie sits beside her, doesn’t look at her and nods softly. 

 

“I’m sorry. Especially about… you know.” 

 

Hope shake her head, and she reaches for Lizzie’s hand and squeezes it. “It’s not your fault I-I would've died. I should’ve shot him dead when I had the chance.” 

 

“He’s your dad, Hope.” Lizzie replied softly, “I couldn’t even compose myself after killing a woman I never knew, it wouldn’t have been easy on you.” 

 

“I’m just— I’m supposed to be the  _ strongest.”  _ Hope says, “And I- I knew it was a trick but I… I couldn’t do it.” 

 

“No one is expecting you to be strong all the time,” Lizzie says, “We’re only kids.” 

 

“I know.” Hope answers weakly, and the first tear rolls down her cheek. Lizzie doesn’t hesitate to pull Hope into her, wrapping her arm around Hope’s shoulders and hugging her close. 

 

Hope cries, sobs and holds onto Lizzie tighter. 

 

— — — 

 

Lizzie smiled gently at Hope. She had walked her back to her dorm, and Hope was turning to enter her room. 

 

Hope entered the room, and jumped back when she saw Dorian sitting on her desk chair. 

 

“Have you told her?” Dorian asks genuinely curious. Hope sighs and shakes her head at him. 

 

She then rolls her eyes at his ridiculousness, “At what point in a conversation do I casually mention that ‘oh hey, your soul and mine are intertwined, so you’re basically my soulmate’?” 

 

Dorian sighs. 

 

Yeah, that’s a tough one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmk ur thoughts   
> Talk to me on twitter @endgamehizzie  
> C u nxt time


	9. "I only care about myself"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we figure out what's going on with hope and lizzie, we get a new therapist (all these kids need it oml) and everyone's favorite wolfie boi returns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry this took forever im horrible but plis give me validation my motivation depends on it sjdhchedk  
> also if there are any typos, i dont claim them i was writing this at 4am 
> 
> also i totally envisioned priyanka chopra (jonas?) as dr denali ok bye

_ “It’s about you and Lizzie.”  _ Dorian had said, that late night when he entered her dorm room. 

 

“What do you mean?” Hope replies, stepping out of bed and meeting him by the door. 

 

“Please sit,” Dorian encourages. “It’s kind of a doozy.” Hope follows his suggestion, sitting back down on her bed, crossing her arms. 

 

Dorian takes a seat at her desk, and swivels the chair to look at her. “I think I’ve figured out how Lizzie remembers you. It kinda…” Dorian contemplates his next words, “it’s a theory.” He decides on. 

 

“Okay, just… get on with it.” Hope urges. 

 

“You’re a tribrid.” Dorian starts, “Or at least you were.” 

 

“No need to rub it in.” She grumbles. Dorian just shakes his head and gets back on track. 

 

“You’re— were a very powerful being. You have an untapped plethora of power that no one else has ever had. Meaning that… I think you may have imprinted on Lizzie.” 

 

“Imprinted?” Hope asked, with furrowed brows. “Isn’t that a thing from the book with the sparkly vampires?” 

 

“Uh… yeah. Look I’ve done some research and imprinting  _ has _ happened before— it’s just really rare. Like, the thing of the first werewolf alpha, and a true alpha here and there. And you being a super powerful werewolf, I don’t see why it’s not possible that you did it with Lizzie.” 

 

“I-I didn’t do  _ anything with Lizzie _ . I didn’t even consciously do it!” Hope argues, suddenly defensive. Dorian nods and holds his hands up in surrender. 

 

“What happened, transcends traditional, regular magic. Josie has your blood in her, and she didn’t even remember you. Landon was the boy you were in love with—“ 

 

“Let’s not talk about that.” Hope interrupts, clenching her jaw. 

 

“He was important to you.” Dorian rephrased, “And he doesn’t remember the past either. Lizzie remembered you after your first  _ touch _ .” Dorian said, “And I did some research about imprinting and the few cases that were recorded.” 

 

“Okay, and what?” Hope asked urgently. 

 

“Souls are like snowflakes— right? And everyone is different and delicate and complex. And, also, some people are lucky to find their identical one or— the missing piece in their puzzle and so—“ 

 

“Do  _ not  _ tell me right now that you’re saying Lizzie is my soulmate? What is this? Some romance movie? C’mon on Mr. Williams.” Hope scoffs. 

 

Dorian shrugs, “It’s just the research. It’s also just a theory. But there seems to be no other explanation.” 

 

“You said it transcends magic?” Hope asks softly, still avoiding Dorian’s gaze. Dorian nods softly. 

 

“Yeah, seems so.” 

 

“That’s stupid. Magic is magic. Nothing is supposed to trump it.” Hope grumbles. “Okay. So Lizzie’s my soulmate or whatever— that doesn’t mean I’m going to fall in love with her or anything. And she won’t with me either. She barely liked me before.” 

 

“Soulmates aren’t always romantic.” Dorian points out, “But the few other cases that I found…” He trails off, hoping she’d take the hint. 

 

“I don’t care about other people.” Hope responds, “I only care about myself. I need to kill Malivore.” 

 

Dorian sighs and stands up, “Goodnight, Hope.” 

 

Hope doesn’t sleep much that night.

 

— — — 

 

“Hey, Josie.” Hope smiles softly, setting herself across from Josie at the table in the library. 

 

“Hi, Hope.” Josie replies, closing her book and looking at Hope with questioning eyes. “What’s up?” 

 

Hope shrugged. “Remember last week when Lizzie killed my dad?” Josie’s face falls, and Hope smiles again, “I mean— it was either me or him, I get it. But, you placed a containment spell— how did Lizzie get in?” 

 

Josie pauses, and furrows her brows as she thinks about it. “Huh, I don’t know. I mean I could’ve taken it down for a second but I don’t remember.” Josie says. And Hope nods, smiles again at her reaches over to squeeze her hand. 

 

“Thanks, Jo.” She replied before getting out her chair and walking off. 

 

“What did our Olympic diver want?” Penelope asks as she walks back up to the table, plopping a handful of books onto the table. 

 

“She had a question about Lizzie.” Josie says, turning to Penelope who raised her brows. 

 

“Cute.” Penelope tsks, “Anyways, these were all the books I could find containing texts about magical sphere-things.” 

 

“Thanks.” Josie smiles gratefully, gently grasping Penelope’s tie and pulling her down so Penelope could meet her in a sweet kiss from where she was standing beside to Josie.

 

“So what’s all this for again?” 

 

“I found this thing in Dad’s office, it was hidden. I think there’s something in it. I want to get it out.” Josie explains. Penelope looks uneasy at the concept. 

 

“Are you sure that’s a smart idea? He was hiding it for a reason.” Then Penelope sees Josie’s sad pout and she sighs, “I’ll help you out, baby, don’t worry.” She then adds taking a seat next to Josie. 

 

Josie smiles, pressing a happy kiss to Penelope’s cheek. 

 

— — — 

 

Lizzie wasn’t dumb. 

 

Hope was avoiding her. 

 

Ever since the necromancer had brought back her father, and Lizzie had killed him, Hope had locked herself in her room. She came out for classes-- although she was always missing in the ones she and Lizzie shared-- and she took her lunch straight to her room. 

 

Lizzie wasn’t sure how to go about confronting her. 

 

She couldn’t be mad at Hope for being mad at her for killing her dad-- because that would be a  _ very  _ shitty thing to do. 

 

She just missed her friend. 

 

Lizzie sighs, deciding  _ fuck it _ she would walk right up to Hope’s door and demand for Hope to talk to her. She marches her way confidently to Hope’s dorm where she is about to knock when her fist bounces off the thin air. She clenches her jaw.  _ A boundary spell? Really?  _

 

“Hope.” Lizzie calls out. “Hope, seriously?” 

 

She waits a beat. And then she hears the locks on Hope’s door open. The door opens only a sliver, and Hope looks utterly indifferent when she sees Lizzie standing outside her door. 

 

“Yeah?” Hope asks softly. 

 

“Who did you get to place this spell?” Lizzie asks firstly. Hope shrugs. 

 

“A friend.” Hope says, “Is there something you needed, Lizzie?” 

 

“Can we talk?” Lizzie replies, her eyes pleading. Hope looks into her eyes briefly, before looking away and shaking her head. 

 

“I’m really busy, Lizzie.” Hope mutters, going to turn and close the door. Without a second thought, Lizzie’s hand stretches out and her fingers lock around Hope’s wrist. 

 

“Hope—“

 

“How did you do that?” Hope asks suddenly, shaking Lizzie’s hand off of her. 

 

Only then does Lizzie remember that there had been a boundary spell in place. 

 

“I-I don’t know I must’ve just siphoned it unconsciously.” 

 

“Have you ever done that before?” Hope asked immediately after. 

 

“Uh, no… I don’t think so.” Lizzie says confusedly, “What’s going on?” 

 

“I have to go.” Hope mutters instead of answering. She slams her door shut in Lizzie’s face. Lizzie lets out a defeated breath. She goes to reach for the door handle, but then hears Hope lock it. 

 

Lizzie curses under her breath, turning on her heel and leaving. 

 

From the other side of the door, Hope sighs too. Her head knocking back and resting against the hardwood of the door. 

 

— — — 

 

Lizzie walks into her dads office, totally  _ not  _ about to complain about the boundary spell some traitorous witch had placed for Hope, when she sees a pretty woman sitting across from her father. 

 

“Lizzie! This is our new school counselor, Doctor Theresa Denali.” Her father explains. 

 

“Nice to meet you Elizabeth,” the woman turns and smiles. She had a really gorgeous smile. Lizzie wasn’t quite sure she was real. What with her shiny dark brown hair, beautifully tanned skin and that stunning smile. Theresa reaches out a hand, and for a second Lizzie didn’t realize she was wanting to shake her hand. Lizzie reaches out enthusiastically and smiles brightly. 

 

“Nice to meet you too! I hope you enjoy the school. I’m sure we’ll get well acquainted after our first few sessions.” Lizzie smiles charmingly, the new counselor laughs softly. 

 

“Of course. In fact I’ll pencil you in for when I start tomorrow.” 

 

“Fantastic!” Lizzie agrees, “I’ll see you then!” 

 

“Did you come in here for something, Lizzie?” Alaric asks. 

 

_ Oh, yeah that’s why I walked in here.  _

 

“Nothing important, Daddy.” Lizzie says mindlessly sending her father a polite smile before leaving the office. 

 

“She’s a personality, that one.” Theresa laughs softly. Alaric nods. 

 

“Tell me about it.” He agrees. 

 

\-- -- --

“Aunt Freya,” Hope greets softly into the phone, “I- I um, have some questions. But I think it’s more of an in-person conversation.” 

 

“Okay, kiddo.” Freya replies lightly, “Give me a few minutes and I’ll project over there.” 

 

Hope agrees, and they hang up. She sits on her bed fiddling with her fingers in the small silence before she feels Freya’s presence. She turns towards the door and finds Freya standing by with concern written all over her face. 

 

“Hey, kid.” Freya said softly, walking to sit next Hope on her bed. “What’s troubling my favorite niece?” 

 

Hope doesn’t bother pointing out that she’s her  _ only _ niece. 

 

“Do you believe in fate?” Hope asks outright. Freya raises her eyebrows,  _ oh so it’s  _ **_that_ ** _ kind of conversation.  _

 

“I think on some level, yes.” Freya answers carefully. “However I also do believe we can change our fates. I was destined to be stuck with a witch who would kill the firstborn of each generation of our family, yet here I am.” 

  
  


“How?” Hope asks, “Because I feel like my life has always been locked into one fate or another and not having a choice is suffocating me.” 

 

Freya sighed softly, and leans back onto Hope’s bed, “I think whatever you’re asking about is way more specific than just fate.” Freya says, inquisitively. 

 

“Um,” Hope breathes out a little unevenly, “It’s about Lizzie Saltzman.” 

 

“One of Caroline’s daughters? I guess you are your father’s daughter after all.” Freya laughs a soft teasing laugh and Hope groans into her face at the embarrassment. “Okay, okay. So what about Lizzie Saltzman?” 

 

“I think she’s my soulmate?” Hope says unsure, watching the shock and confusion fall on Freya’s face. “I- Apparently-- before I jumped into Malivore, I-- Dorian says that I must have  _ imprinted  _ on her. Like--” 

 

“Like you claimed her.” Freya finishes her sentence, Hope nods. “Well how did you manage to do that?” 

 

“I don’t know!” Hope says back, “But now it’s like she’s meant to be my soulmate or something and I- I don’t like being told what to do.” 

 

Freya makes a shady facial expression as if to say,  _ tell me about it _ . 

 

“So what are you gonna do about it, kid?” Freya asks. 

 

“I don’t know if there is anything I can do. Dorian says it transcends traditional magic-- I mean, Lizzie broke through a boundary spell like it was nothing! She didn’t even siphon it out or anything. She walked through it like it wasn’t there and she--” Hope cuts herself off shortly, she lets out a breath and shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter.” She mutters afterwards. 

 

“What did she do Hope?” Freya asks. 

 

“Malivore… had someone bring dad back.” Hope says, “But-- But he wasn’t  _ dad _ he was… the big bad Klaus Mikaelson. And he wanted to hurt me. Lizzie stopped him. She killed him, Aunt Freya.” 

 

“Oh honey…” Freya whispers, wanting to reach out, but knowing it wouldn’t feel at all comforting to Hope. “If he wanted to hurt you, then it was never your dad at all.” 

 

“No but it was, Aunt Freya.” Hope says, and her throat feels tight. “Once he was staked he-- he was my dad again. He looked at me like I was his entire world and he was the man that would do anything for his family. He was the guy that taught me how to mix paints to get the color of my eyes just right and--” Hope cuts herself off, “And then he got taken away from me all over again.” 

 

“Hope…” Freya sighed softly, “It was a cruel, cruel trick. But it was not your father.” 

 

“I don’t know what to do, Aunt Freya.” Hope admits, “About anything. I’m just so useless without my powers, now I’m just some liability and-and there’s still the same problems everyday and I can’t help. I don’t live up to the Mikaelson name-- I’m not my father’s heir-- I’m nothing.” 

 

“Hey.” Freya said, she sounded firm, assertive. “You are not useless. Much less are you  _ nothing _ . We have fought and won wars for you since before you were born. Everything we’ve ever done in our lives, we did to get here-- with you alive, not subjected to an endless supply of enemies or threats. You were our family’s fate and there is no one I know who would dare say we would want to change it.” 

 

Hope takes in a shallow breath and nods, her eyes focused on the carpet laying by her bed. “Thank you, Aunt Freya.” Hope says softly. 

 

Freya smiles gently to her fragile niece and she nods. “I have to go,” Freya says reluctantly. “But call me later, okay kid? Maybe you should come back home for a little while.” 

 

“We’ll see.” Hope agrees. Freya nods once more, and then she’s gone and Hope is alone again. 

 

\-- -- -- 

 

Lizzie was seated in the back of her herbal magic class, scribbling mindlessly into her journal, tuning out the world.

 

Sooner or later, class is over, and she walks out into the corridor to head back to her room. She turns a corner and runs right into a boy’s back. 

 

“Ow, what the hell?” She grumbles, and the boy turns around she rolls her eyes, “Did you pause in the middle of the hallway to brush your wannabe grunge bangs out of your face, mop head?”

 

“Sorry,” Landon says, “I’m actually in line.” 

 

“For?” Lizzie asked, looking annoyed. Her eyes drifted to the line of boys in front of the door.

 

“Miss Denali? She scheduled a bunch of us to come in on her first day.” Landon explains. 

 

“Well, I know she’ll have a lot to unpack with you. I might have to convince dad to pay her time and a half.” Lizzie says, patting Landon’s shoulder before walking off. 

 

Landon makes an offended face but rolls his eyes before he reaches out and stops Lizzie, “Hey hold on, have you seen that girl? Hope?” 

 

“And why on God’s green earth do you need to know that?” Lizzie asks, shaking off his hand like it was burning her. 

 

“Well…” Landon looks uncertain for a moment, “I just need to talk to her about something.” He decides. 

 

“Don’t we all.” Lizzie mutters before walking off finally. 

 

Landon furrows his brows, then shakes his head.  _ Whatever none of my business _ . 

 

\-- -- -- 

 

“Hope, Miss Denali has requested your presence.” 

 

“No thank you.” 

 

“That’s not how it works.” Dorian sighs, looking down at Hope who had her nose buried in her book. 

 

“Look, I don’t need some chick in my head telling me what’s wrong with me. I already know.” Hope says. 

 

“Fine.” Dorian shrugged, “Just walk out the door so I can say you were on your way.” 

 

“You really wanna give me that choice?” Hope shoots back, Dorian shrugs. 

 

“I trust you’ll make the right one.” Dorian says and Hope sighs, picking up her things and snatching the pink slip from Dorian’s hand and walking out of the library. 

 

Hope makes her way down the hallway, to the designated room, there were a few people in front of the door of Ms.Denali’s room. One of them being Landon. 

 

Hope cursed under her breath. 

 

Landon’s eyes registered her and she smiled awkwardly at him as he waved. 

 

“Hi, Hope.” He smiles softly, he looked suddenly nervous. “I’ve been hoping to talk to you.” 

 

“I’ve been hoping to avoid you.” Hope responds bluntly. 

 

“About that kiss, I-” 

 

“I shouldn’t have done that.” Hope cuts him off. “I don’t know why I did but it was a mistake so…” 

 

“Oh.” Landon mutters softly, disappointedly. “Okay.” 

 

“Yeah.” Hope replies then, nodding awkwardly and looking everywhere but at Landon. 

 

“I should go.” Landon spoke up, “I can reschedule later, you shouldn’t be stuck with me. Later, Hope.” 

 

“Wait, Landon--” Hope calls out but he’s already too far gone by then. She sighs, “Fuck.” 

 

Hope leans against the wall, cursing to herself about how the whole situation had been handled. She should’ve been smarter about it, she should’ve been more careful of Landon’s feelings. It was clearer now that even though Landon didn’t remember her, he still had some inkling of feelings for Hope. 

 

However getting people to remember her has definitely taken the back burner on Hope’s to-do list of problems. Firstly, she had to deal with undoing this whole imprinting thing, then getting her powers back, and then finally defeating Malivore and Clarke. Landon was now but a footnote at the bottom of her long list. 

 

Hope’s thoughts danced around her head as she waited in the line. Sooner or later, she was at the front, and the new school counselor ushered one boy out before smiling at Hope. 

 

“Miss Mikaelson,” She greeted, before guiding Hope into her office. 

 

Hope sat stiffly in the small couch across from Miss Denali. The woman slides a mug of warm tea over to Hope. 

 

“Relax, Hope.” The woman laughs softly. “I just want to get a feel for you. You’re the only student here at Salvatore who doesn’t have any record of having therapy sessions. I want to know why?” 

 

Hope laughs to herself, she shrugs. “I was gone for a while.” Hope states vaguely, her spoon stirring in the white mug, she watches the brown liquid swirl into a small tornado in her cup. “Most of my records were destroyed, but me and Emma were close I’d say.” 

 

Theresa smiles softly to herself, “I’m not a threat, Hope.” She explains, “I’m not trying to take Emma’s spot, I’m just trying to be the person who’s there for you when you need her.” 

 

Hope nods softly, “I’ve been told that I have a hard exterior to crack.” Hope tells Theresa softly, “I let this person in-- and I don’t let people in-- and it… it was nice for a while but now I think I may have done irreversible damage before I left and I don't know how to fix it.” 

 

Theresa is quiet, and nods at the end of Hope’s ramblings. Hope’s eyes widen and she shakes her head, “I should shut up.” Hope decides. 

 

“Actually, I’d prefer if you did the opposite--” 

 

“I can’t.” Hope blurts out, “And I can’t explain so don’t-- don’t give me that look.” 

 

Theresa sits back, “Whatever I need to do to gain your trust, just tell me Hope and we can get on with this. You have too much weight on your shoulders for our resident human student.” 

 

“How do you know that?” Hope asked, looking up at the new counselor. 

 

“Alaric had a few bits of information he wanted to share before he threw me to the wolves… both figuratively and literally.” Theresa jokes softly.

 

“Whatever Doctor Saltzman told you about me-- he doesn’t  _ know me _ anymore, okay? No one knows me anymore and-- and that’s the way it’s staying.” She says, she sounds secure in her answer. Theresa can see the fear in Hope’s eyes, clearly this girl had gone through something. She had all the time in the world to figure her out. 

 

“Okay.” Theresa concedes, nodding slowly, setting her mug down. “I think meeting once a week should do the trick for us. I’ll see you next week, Hope.”  

 

Hope nods stiffly, getting up from the couch and picking up her bag before storming out of the office.  She walks with her head down, to her next class and sits quietly in the back of the class. She sighs heavily, she just wanted to stay holed up in her room watching  _ Cutthroat Kitchen.  _

 

\-- -- 

 

Landon walked into the counseling office, and smiled awkwardly at Theresa. 

 

“Hello, Landon.” She smiled beautifully. 

 

“Hi, uh, Miss Denali.” He replied, and the woman shook her head and waved a hand. 

 

“Oh, nonsense, call me Theresa! Miss Denali makes me sound like an old hag.” She laughs softly. 

 

“O-Okay, Theresa.” He responds. “So uh, I’ve never really done this whole therapy thing. How does this work?”

 

Theresa shrugs, “However you’d like it to go. You can tell me if anything is troubling you, or we can mental chess trying to get you to open up to me.” 

 

Landon nods and thinks in his head for a moment, and then he nods. “So, I’ve never felt like I’ve had… a real place, anywhere. I mean, my mom gave me up as a child, and I bounced from foster home to foster home, I had a brother-- Rafael-- but when Triad raided he just… disappeared. He was my real home, you know? I always had a place with him, by his side. But now... “ Landon sighs, “I don’t have anywhere to go. I’m just  _ here. _ ” 

 

Theresa nods, “You have abandonment issues,” She says, “I’d say it’s hard not to have those given the cards of life you were dealt.” 

 

“That- That’s it?” Landon asks, “Sorry, I was just.. Expecting something deeper than that.” He says, shaking his head. 

 

Theresa shrugs, “Somethings are more obvious than others. Like I can tell that’s not the only thing that’s on your mind.” She says, “What else is troubling you?” 

 

“Well… there’s this girl.” Landon finally admits, “And I can’t explain but I’m just.. Drawn to her? She kissed me not too long ago and now she’s avoiding me but I just want to talk to her because… something about her is so familiar but I can’t explain it.” 

 

“Maybe she’s scared of what she feels.” Theresa suggests, “People run when they’re scared most of the time.” 

 

“No, she definitely strikes me as a fighter.” Landon laughs softly to himself, “Yeah, I don’t think she runs from anything.” 

 

\-- -- 

 

Lizzie watched quietly, Hope jogging her way around the track of the small football field they had. Hope had been out here since six a.m. it was now only going to be eight, classes would be starting soon. She was standing by the bleaches, waiting patiently for Hope to get closer so they could finally talk. 

 

With her human speed, it takes a bit longer than Lizzie anticipated, before she finally gave up and started heading for Hope. Hope’s running came to a stop when she saw Lizzie, and the auburn haired girl sighed. 

 

“Hi, Lizzie.” She muttered. 

 

Lizzie smiled, “You’ve never sounded happier to see me.” 

 

“I don’t really have time to talk, Lizzie.” Hope said, trying to push past her but Lizzie grabbed onto her wrist to stop her. 

 

“Can you stop ignoring me?” Lizzie pleaded, “What’s going on? Stop-- Stop running away from me, Hope.” 

 

“I’m not ignoring you, I’m-” Hope sighed, “I’m doing you a favor.” She said, shaking Lizzie’s hand off of her before she continued walking. 

 

“You don’t get to do that.” Lizzie shouted, her voice sounding so fierce that Hope had actually stopped in her tracks, however she hadn’t turned back around. “You don’t get to let me in only to shut me out the next second Hope! I can’t keep going back and forth with the whiplash. You don’t get to decide what’s doing me a favor-- I’m my own person and I can damn well tell when something is good for me and when it isn’t.” Lizzie snapped. 

 

Hope clenched her jaw, pursing her lips and nodded before turning around and prepared herself to fight back. 

 

“Look, Lizzie, I’m trying to be nice here-- okay? You don’t need me around. You never did before so it shouldn’t be too hard to go back to that. You don’t know anything, okay? It’s for your own good.” Hope reasoned calmly. 

 

“You don’t get to make decisions for me after deciding you don’t want to be in my life.” Lizzie shot back, she crossed her arms. 

 

“You don’t have a choice, Lizzie.” Hope snapped, “Apparently neither do I.” Hope adds, muttering more to herself than anyone but Lizzie still catches it. 

 

“What are you talking about?” Lizzie demanded. 

 

“You killed my dad, Lizzie! I didn’t-- I didn’t have a choice in the matter and you  _ killed _ him like it was nothing.” Hope exploded. “That was  _ my  _ father. He was my Always and Forever and I lost him for the second time because…” Hope trailed off softly, “Because I’m a beacon for evil and suffering and he, again, fell victim to it.” 

 

“Hope…” 

 

“The people I love  _ suffer  _ because of me, Lizzie.” Hope added, her eyes focusing down on the dewy morning grass by the track, “So I need you and everyone else to stay away from me.” 

 

Lizzie doesn’t get a chance to say anything else before Hope sends her a warning look. 

 

“Don’t follow me.” She says, before she turns and walks off for good. 

 

Lizzie sighed, kicking at the gravel beneath her leather boot before turning on her heel and walking the opposite direction. 

 

\-- -- -- 

 

Landon sat down on the leather couch in the counselor’s office, a bit uncomfortable with the fact that a woman was going to be poking around in his head. Emma had a non-threatening vibe about her, but in the presence of Doctor Denali, Landon was more intimidated. 

 

“Don’t be so stiff, Landon.” Theresa laughed softly, handing him a cup of tea. “Let’s get to know one another, yeah? I feel like our first session was a bit rocky, let’s start over.”  

 

“Oh, okay.” Landon nods, “Um, I don’t know what you want to know.” 

 

“Well, I know you’re apparently a Phoenix.” The Doctor states, “You can’t die.” 

 

“So far, yeah.” Landon nods softly, “That’s pretty much the only significant thing about me. So uh… what about you?” He asks awkwardly, he wasn’t sure how this was supposed to go. 

 

Theresa nods, “Well, a few years ago, I lost my kids and husband.” She says, more factually than sadly. “So I closed my practice and took the job here when I heard of it.”

 

“I’m sorry-- about your family.” 

 

Theresa shrugs, “Families come and go.” She said, Landon furrowed his brows. Surely that wasn’t an appropriate response. At least the boy with no family thought so. “You and I have that in common, don’t we? No family.” 

 

“Uh.. yeah.” Landon muttered, looking for a way out. Something was setting off his  _ some-wack-shit-is-going-on _ radar. He took a large gulp of his tea, nervously. 

“But… you can always recreate them…. Make a new, better family.” Theresa drawled on, her eyes flitting over Landon. “You and the other boys… You’ll help me make the  _ perfect _ family.” 

 

“W-What?” Landon asked, he could feel his heart rate spike, but suddenly his body felt so heavy… and the couch felt so comfy, he could use a nap. But no, no he needed to get the fuck out of here first. 

 

“You seem… tired, Landon.” Theresa said, the mock-concern dripping from her tone only worried Landon even more. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you yet. This will just put you to sleep.” She informed him, setting her own tea down. 

 

“W-What… What are you doing to me?” Landon slurred, his head falling back, his neck couldn’t support it anymore. 

 

“That wretched mudman took  _ everything  _ from me.” Theresa said, getting up from her chair and walking over to Landon, she ran her fingers through his curls before she gripped them tightly and yanked his head back farther, Landon grunted with pain, “My  _ offspring _ , my legacy. He killed them all and then devoured me, subjected me to a millennia of absolute anguish. Then his bastard son let me out and said all I had to do to stay was get him that Hope girl, he didn't say I couldn’t get my family back. So, I’m indulging myself before I turn in that filthy mutt of a girl.” Theresa’s voice had gone bitter as she explained to Landon. 

 

“What… What are you?” 

 

“In due time, love.” Theresa laughed softly, her hand moving from Landon’s hair to pat his cheek, “We’ll be well acquainted. Do your powers work if your decapitated?” 

 

“W-what?” He muttered, his head was getting foggy. Theresa shrugged, unbothered. 

 

“I suppose we’ll find out.” She smiled. 

 

It was the last thing Landon saw before he gave up the fight to succumbing to sleep.

 

\-- --- ----

 

Hope was sitting in the common room, stashed away besides the fireplace in a loveseat, her legs slinged over the arm of the chair as she flipped the pages of her book. 

 

_ Untethering and Unlinking: the art of disconnect.  _

 

The chapter wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t read in the other books. Representational magic could work but she had already tried with a few of the witches from Penelope’s coven and it didn’t seem to work. Either that, or not even a whole coven of witches could produce magic strong enough to get rid of whatever had married her soul to Lizzie’s. 

 

She huffed, slamming the book shut and tossing it onto the nearby coffee table. Running a hand through her hair she decided to go for a walk and headed towards the woods. The woods had a seemingly peaceful appeal to them, she’d go the old mill house and decide her next moves. She could go back to New Orleans, maybe enlisting the help of her Aunt Freya and Esther’s books could help. Perhaps she could enlist the help of her aunt Davina, too. 

 

She was only seventeen-- wait no, eighteen. She was in Malivore for her birthday. She was only eighteen, she didn’t need something as heavy as having a soulmate to worry about weighing on her. 

 

She stumbled on a tree branch and caught onto a tree to steady herself, and saw something flash by in her peripheral. She takes a cautionary look around, before deciding to continue her walk. A few steps in, she hears branches snap, not too far away. Her fingers wrap around the knife tucked into the waistband of her pants and she pulls it out. 

 

“I suggest you show yourself before I start throwing things, I have a pretty good aim.” Hope says, a warning lilt in her voice. She looks around again, waits a beat before she starts walking, a bit faster now. 

 

She hears more rustling, closer this time. She sees the old mill house ahead and decides to sprint to it. It’s only a few steps away before she’s knocked over. She hastily flips onto her back, gripping her knife tightly and crawling backwards while looking for whatever had just knocked her down. She looks around, and then her eyes see it. Or him, actually. 

 

Standing there one four feet and eyes narrowed on her like she was crossing territory lines. He snarled and she gulped. 

 

Hope clenched her jaw nervously before greeting the wolf, “Hi, Rafael."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i packed a lot in here i feel, and i was going to add more but i think im spitting up this into two parts, seeing as we just got to the fun part :)  
> lmk ur thoughts thx  
> c u nxt time :^)

**Author's Note:**

> lmk ur thoughts :)   
> we're just getting started so i hope you stick around :)  
> Talk to me on twitter @endgamehizzie !!


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